High school years
by CloudbzandPiratey-things
Summary: In a parallel universe where the school never existed. Well maybe there is one school; high school. A drama packed story where the mysterious pasts of each character will slowly unfold with plenty of surprising turns along the way. I'm really proud of this story so give it a read and constructive criticism is always welcome. Go on give it a go, what have you got to lose?
1. One, two, three, four

**A/N Hello thank you for clicking on my story. I've been off fan fiction for about 4 years, but now I'm back and this story has just been festering at the back of my mind and I really need to just get it out. Hope you enjoy ^.^**

**Just so the formatting doesn't confuse you, whenever I put a flashback in I'll write the whole section in italics. **

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_There were four quick knocks at the door._

_Val who was sitting on her chair pushed her stomach forward and stood up. She then quickly walked, shuffling her feet to answer the door. She looked through the eye hole to see Chloe, a young lady who was just about to go into her junior year of high school. Chloe came to Val last summer to help in the veterinary hospital with her as part of her work experience. Though they were not close Val had taken an interest in Chloe as she was a very bright individual with a lot of drive. She knew Chloe trusted her, and hoped Chloe would work with her again another summer. _

_Val unbolted the door which made an unpleasant clank as it jolted out of the slot. Val pulled back the door. _

_"Hello Chloe, how are you? Do you want to work again this summer? Oh my you have grown, just look at you" Val looked down onto Chloe and saw a sudden bump on her lower stomach. Val looked back to Chloe, she had blood shot eyes. _

_"Chloe?" Val asked with caution. Why was she here? What did Chloe want? They stood there for a bit waiting for someone to say something._

_"I've been kicked out" Chloe stated, obviously sick of the silence. "I'm pregnant and I've been kicked out" _

_"Oh… Oh! Okay" Val nodded and kept on nodding until she felt her brain rattling. _

_"You're just the only other adult I trust and I just. I was just wondering if I could stay with you until I get things sorted" _  
_Val nodded again, slower this time. _

_"um, well yes, but. I don't know, what are your plans"_

_"I'm going to get a job that has daycare then once he's in school I'll take up a part time college course so in time I can become a vet" Chloe was a small, blonde teenager and her physical characteristics were often misleading to her true self. People often assumed her to be weak and dizzy but she was the most strong and sure minded young women anyone could ever hope to meet. _

_"oh so you're keeping it" _

_"It? I said he" Chloe flicked her nails and gritted her teeth "and why are you so surprised" Chloe gave a quick shake of her head "There's nothing wrong with being a single mother, I can do everything you and Alex can. I.. I.. I shouldn't have come here" Chloe turned quickly on her heels and walked down the path. _

_"wait" Val shouted running after Chloe "it's your choice, sorry for not respecting that" Chloe kept on walking "stay with us" Val shouted, as she caught up with Chloe. Chloe turned around _

_"No. I have to do this on my own" _

_"You'll need help, please stay with us. You can be as independent as you like, but it's hard on your own, just let me help you." Val gave a small smile, and Chloe smiled back. _

_"Okay" she lunged forward to give Val a hug and whispered into her ear "thank you"._

* * *

*14.5 years later*

One, two, three, four

"Come in" I shout

He always knocks at the door four times

"Hellooooo?" Jesus. What is he playing at? I roll over off my bed tiptoeing around dirty clothes, used plates and random CD's all over the floor to make my way to the door. Ouch. Damn it what did I just stand on? I open the door and peer round the corner there he is leaning on the wall.

"Why didn't you just come in?" I cross my arms and her shrugs. I raise my eyebrows

"You could have been changing" he says "Plus your room's a mess, I don't want to come in"

"I wouldn't tell you to come in if I was changing"

"You did that one time"

"I thought you were my mum, you didn't do your knock"

"I have a knock?"

"Yeah, four fast knocks" I smile "The Fang knock" He shakes his head at me then a confused expression arises.

"What the hell are you wearing!?" Fang asks I look down at my shirt. Well shit.

"umm"

"That's my shirt" I steal his clothes all the time. It's his fault he won't tell me where he gets them.

"No one cares Fang" I squeeze past him and run downstairs. I turn around he's chasing after me still, good thing I'm faster. I jump round the corner. Ompfh.

"MAX" mum cries as I smash into her and send us both hurtling to the ground. Fang catches up and looks at me and makes a fake look of disgust. I smirk back at him, then realised I'm still lying on my mum. I quickly stand up.

"um sorry" I say, flicking my hair back so she can see my sweet innocent face. Short story: it doesn't work. This is probably due to me not washing my hair for days and having scabby arms- I know nice.

"eurgh just go outside and please let me take you to the hairdressers"

"no I like my hair long"

"But it needs to be neater" she says shaking her head. I roll my eyes

"Jesus you act like we're the kind of family that goes to church every weekend and actually cares what people think" I can see Fang in the corner of my eye standing awkwardly "anyway Fang and I have got to run no time for haircuts". My mum turns her head to the side.

"Oh hi Nick" my mum says smiling, immediately changing her tone of voice. "Do you want something to eat" she pulls herself off the floor.

"Thank you Val, but-" Fang starts

"But we have to go" I say, interrupting him. I run past mum and take Fangs hand pulling him along and out of the door.

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**A/N Thank you very much for reading, if I made a mistake please correct me and I always appreciate constructive criticism, ****I should have the next chapter up soon- stick around it does get better I promise. **

**cya soon**

**-Jess x **


	2. broken board

**A/N Oh my goodness, thank you everyone for taking an interest in of my story. I'm having a bit problem with Microsoft word so I'm going to have to spend longer checking my chapters for silly spelling mistakes until I can get it fixed. I don't have too much on at the moment so by the looks of thing I should get a new chapter out at least every other day. **

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*Max POV*

Fang always has really clammy hands, like I don't even know why. He's not even a sweaty guy, just always with the clammy hands. He's a quiet person, but not lacking in confidence, he just doesn't really want to talk to people he doesn't know; he doesn't see the need. His real name is Nick Faneli and the Faneli part is why we called him Fang. He has olive skin, really dark eyes and hair which used to be quite long, but he cut it so it flops over his face at the front and at the sides reaches the top of his ears.

We go round the side of the house where my bike is, Fang carefully placed his against the fence whilst I just threw mine down onto the gravel. we cycle to Fangs house, he used to live only a few houses away from me but they moved to a bigger house a mile away. When we arrive Fang carefully places his bike against his fence whilst I just drop mine onto the front lawn.

We walk into the house and there are lots boxes inside forming mini towers all around the landing, Fangs mum was darting round the house opening boxes, as if she's looking for something. She spotted Fang and I.

"um Nick dear. You did remember to label the boxes didn't you?" she asked I can't find the kitchen stuff"

"I wrote them on" Fang replied. He stood up and pointed to a black scribble on the box. His mum looked at it and let out a huge sigh, not a sigh of relief more of a sigh of annoyance.

"You didn't bother to write them neat? you've got to be kidding me" She let out another huge sigh "I left you with one thing. One thing to do. Label the boxes and seal them for the moving people and you couldn't do that right" she shook her head and put her hand to her forehead, then pushed her long blonde hair back by running it through her thin fingers. She was very petite around 5"2 and skinny with beautiful thick blonde hair that's really straight and shiny. She has a similar olive skin tone to Fang, only slightly fairer.

Fang shrugs. His mum lets out another sigh. Her eyes gaze slightly to Fangs left and her green eyes widen slightly.

"OH! Hello Max" Her annoyed face loses all tension and greets me with a warm smile. The smile seems forced and I can easily tell she's tired.

"Hey Chloe" I say nodding slightly. I know her well, her and my mum have been friends for years. Her and Fang lived with us for a couple of years because my mum wanted her to finish high school. She trained on the job as a veterinary nurse for my mum, then she had to go on sick leave for a couple of years, now she's training to become a fully qualified vet.

"You excited to start high school?" she asks.

"um I guess, but it's still school, so you know. Yeah it's still school so it will be pretty bad but more independence and stuff" I splurt out. Fang looks at me and raises an eyebrow as if to say _smooth_. I'm not really sure how I feel about high school, but if it's anything like the movies I think I'm going to hate it. The first day is tomorrow so Fang and I will be soaking up our final moments of freedom.

"sooooo. we're going upstairs" Fang says. he pushes me forward and I go up the stairs. Fang kisses his mum on the cheek as he goes past her thinking I didn't see. He's very close to his mum, but he wants to keep up the dark and emotionless kind of persona he has, even to me. He thinks he's all secretive but I can read him like a book. For example I bet he wrote badly on the boxes so his mum wouldn't trust him to do any other chores today.

I jog up the stairs turn a corner then go up a spiral set of stairs to Fangs room. He liked the look of the attic so his mum made sure it was all fixed for him to have as his bedroom. It's pretty cool, the floors a bit uneven but it's all good. He has a large circular window facing his front lawn and a four poster bed up in the corner. There's lots of cupboards built into the walls which should be good for Fang as he likes to pack things away and be neat and tidy. I sit down on his bed and he pulls out a skateboard, he got it last year when they started to build a small skate park. We usually go skating down hills to practice our balance him on a skate board and me on roller blades. I'd like to think I'm good but all I can really do is go fast- Fang's the real talent. He really dedicates himself to his hobbies and gets really good at them, her skates, paints and plays the violin but no one can know about the last one. I like to roller blade, run and swim; I'm not artistic like Fang.

Fang passes me the skate board.

"Turn it over" he says with a slight smile. I turn over the board and on the back was a mix of soft and blues, with cascades of harsher shades and detailed shading. I traced my finger over a dark silhouette perched upon a dark blue branch, a light blue moon sent beams of light over a cool blue pond with black silhouettes of lily pads at the bank. It was beautiful.

"wow" I said then still looking at the picture "wow" I said again, then looked to Fang. "This is amazing". I shook my head in disbelief. "How can you do stuff like this? you're too good". Fang shrugged. "no don't be modest" I stood onto my feet "this is absolutely amazing you should be really proud, I mean, it's too good if anything". Fang let a small chuckle through.

"um thank you, but yeah I am proud. That's why I showed you" He smiled. Aw -that boy, he can be weird, like he rarely shows emotion so you'd assume him to be closed off, but he is quite a truthful person. With the board still in one hand I wrapped my arms around Fang for a quick hug, he stood really still and didn't hug back. Then when I stood back he looked a bit weirded out. "what was that for?". Although we're close we don't hug much, like ever actually, so this was kind of weird.

"It doesn't matter" I mumble and sit back down on the bed. Okay don't do that again, it is kind of weird hugging Fang and he doesn't really like it. I look down at my knees for a second then back to Fang. "Do you want to go out?" I ask. His eyes widen and he shakes his head.

"Um Max. uh not that you're not lovely but um you're just my friend" He splurts out. I'm confused so I tilt my head to the side.

"what?" I ask

"You meant go out as in go outside didn't you?" Fang asks. I roll my eyes and spring off his bed

"obviously" I shake my head at him. "come on we'll go skate"

We went off. I borrowed Fangs old skateboard as I couldn't be bothered to go back to mine for my blades. The skate park should be up in a bit, it's taking a bit longer than it should because of lack of funds, which were slashed due to some elderly people complaining that it would encourage youth delinquency or something. Fang showed me some basics, like i can go down ramps if I stay low for easy balance and move pretty fast but he showed me how to fall properly to stay safe and how to Ollie, I can't jump very high when I'm doing it but you know- it's a start. Fang wanted to grind but remembered he hadn't varnished the underside of his board, so he practiced jumping over things on his board instead.

My pocket starts to vibrate. I take my phone out and see I have a text. "Sorry Fang, but mum wants me home. You coming?"

"Nah I want to practice a bit more" He says with a slight smirk. See he's always trying to perfect his skills.

"Okay, I'll see you at school tomorrow" I wave him off and he nods with a slight smirk.

* * *

*Fang POV*

Max walks away and I get back to skating. I see a small bench without a back to it; this should be easy enough. I skate away from it for a good distance to build up speed, this will be the highest jump I've done so I don't want to fall short.

My left leg hits the ground and I lean forward to stretch it out further to pick up more speed. As I approach the bench I place my left leg to the back of the board pushing it down then lean forward with the right in the the center of the board. I bend my knees then straighten them out and force myself over the bench, then take my right foot away from the middle so the board won't snap.

I feel a knock on my left foot, I lean forward and- _UMFPH. _My back wheels get stuck in one of the grooves in the bench, I continue to travel forward and down head first and my chin hits the floor. _ow! _My hands are pretty grazed too, my knees seem to be okay, they'll just be a bit bruised.

"oooh puff boy fell over" I jerk my head to the side and see four boys about the same age as me, maybe a year older laughing at my fall.

"that was totally gay" Another one of the boys says. They all seem to look similar, in loose trousers, except for the one who just spoke who's wearing gym shorts. They all have bright coloured t-shirts on I can make out one of them says 'make me a sandwich, bitch' on it I quickly figure out their type; willing to get a laugh out of another persons expense. I decide nothing good will come of staying here so I pick up my board and walk away quickly, but maybe not quick enough. I hear footsteps behind me, I feel warm breath on my neck, I push my head down and pick up the pace.

"hey hey hey! Where are you going gay boy?" one of them flicks my ear.

"I'm not gay, and trying to intimidate me by calling me gay isn't working as there's nothing wrong with being gay"

"Oh he talks, but can he fight? hey hey Andy do you think he can fight?"

"Hmmm. I don't know kind of skinny" Andy prods me in the rib cage then grabs me by the shoulder making me face him.

"Leave me alone" I snarl then turn quickly on my heels then take one step and get pulled back by my collar.

"Nobody speaks to me like that" Andy whispers pulling me closer, he was menace in his eyes. My brain quickly tries to thing of a solution, I still have the board in my hand. Andy is now griping onto my collar with his arm retracted back with a fist, ready to strike. I stay still. Do not show emotion it's what they want. I suck my cheeks in and spit into his eye, his fist unfurls and he lets go of me wiping his face, with a single swing I hit him on the head with my board sending him off balance so he falls on another boy sending them both to the ground, I then jump on to the board and skate away. I can move quicker on my board and there was a slight slope to speed me up. I can still hear them chasing me, shouting. I'm going really fast now but they're still right on my tail so I push down hard on the ground keeping the other foot in the center of the board. I hear a crack and everything goes in slow motion. The board snaps. _Dammit. _His head must of weakened it. I look back at them, close enough to still read that shirt. I run as fast as I can, but I'm not that athletic so they catch up to me. The tallest one picks me up then throws me to the ground.

"Who do you think you are? You're nothing. If we ever see you again we're going to fucking end you" He kicks me in the stomach winding me; I let out a gasp of air and they all laugh. Andy walks up to me, I'm clutching my stomach, I could feel it start to throb now. _Don't cry. _He spits on me then kneels down next to me.

"Tell your girlfriend she has nice tits" he punches me in the face just below the eye and I feel everything go hazy.

I felt them kick me everywhere until I passed out. I awoke on my side I couldn't see straight. My nose is clogged with dry blood and my sides ache, nothing is broken but I can see bruises forming. I look ahead of my and see my broken board. I pick it up and throw it into the nearest bin; it's worthless now. I look in my back pocket for my phone, and can't find it. looks like they took it. I have no idea what the time is and can't ring for help. I start taking small steps, my head feels all funny. I just need to sleep. I dread to think what my mum will say. And I have to go to school like this tomorrow, I'm not going to blend in at all.

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**A/N So please let me know what you thought, there's always room for improvement with the help of constructive criticism. Hope you have a lovely day and the next chapter should be up soon ^.^**

**- Jess x **


	3. First day of high school

**I have a really bad habit of making my chapters really short, so I've tried to fix it in this one. Hope you enjoy ^.^**

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*Max's POV*

I walk to my house, still with Fangs board in my hand. I'm getting a lift from him tomorrow so I'll give it back to him in the morning. I walk through the door and into the sitting room, my sister is lying back on the sofa with a bowl of cereal. Ella is about 5"5 and really skinny, her long medium brown hair is tightly clipped into a neat bun. She's wearing a mint green leotard and a skirt of the same colour made of a thin material which would usually reach just above her knees, but as she's lying down the skirt is bunched to her side by her pale thighs. Her hazel eyes meet mine.

"MAX" She yells jumping up and running to hug me, I hug her back. She's been at her dancing camp all summer, she's really talented. Don't let her slender frame fool you; ballerinas are really small but they have some serious muscle, Ella can be on her tiptoes on one foot kick the other behind her then lean back and catch it with her hands- It's hella impressive.

"How was camp" I ask smiling. I can see her reminising as her eyes gleam at me

"Oh. My. God. It was amazing" She says, then smiles to herself "four boys from the football club asked for my number"

"Did they get your number?" I asked

"No. I took their numbers so I could decide for myself" I shook my head and smiled slightly

"ah, I love you Ella" She's always popular with boys, but she doesn't seem that bothered about them, just kind of proud that she has them all wrapped around her little finger.

"Is that you Max?" Mum shouts from the kitchen. I walk in.

"Yo mum" I say, then look around "hey when is dad getting back?"

"He'll get back tomorrow evening, probably around five" mum replies. The timer on the oven goes off and she puts on her oven mitts and takes out a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies. "Your dad should be bringing the food shopping home with him tomorrow, so for the moment we're having cookies and cereal for tea" She smiles and puts the tray down on the table. She then tucks her short, dark brown hair behind her ears and adjusts her thin framed glasses. My mum and Ella are both very thin, whilst I have a more athletic build.

I eat my tea of 5 cookies, some juice and a bowl of cornflakes then go up to my room with another cookie. I check my phone to see if there's any word of Fang. No nothing. Except a missed call from Iggy. I press the green button to ring him.

* * *

*Iggy's POV*

Max hasn't replied. It would be so much easier to text, but when the voice on the phone reads out the text it does it really slowly and loudly so everyone in the house can hear- so it's just easier to ring people. Hello I'm Jeff the blind kid that can never sext. Everyone calls me Iggy, I have no idea why; even my parents call me Iggy. I lay down on my bed.

"_Ma-ax is calling" _theautomated voice says. I trace my finger along the bed feeling the vibrations of the phone, I feel that it's close, so slide my whole hand until it hits the phone I pick it up and slide to unlock then press the phone to my ear.

"ello Maxy, my darlin'. 'ow are you?" I say putting on a voice, I hear her let out a quick breath which is what she does when she finds something funny. I also hear a creak in the back ground, like somebody shutting a door.

"yeah you rang?" she asks

"Oh yeah, just asking if I can have a lift with you tomorrow, parent number one is working and parent number two is taking the youngsters to their school" I say

"Is it Gaz's first day of middle school?" she asks I hear another noise, a soft kind of flump, she just lay on her bed.

"Oh no that's next year, him and Angel are still in primary school" I'm quite a bit older than my siblings. Gareth is eight, we call him Gaz, Gazzy, and The Gasman; Angel is 6, don't let her name fool you, she's in no way a Angel. They'll both be asleep by now, it's around 10pm. "But can I have a lift tomorrow?" I repeat.

"Chloe's taking us in and she had a 5 seater" She paused and I heard her take a bite of something. "Lets see Chloe, Fang, me, so... yeah there's room". All of us have been friends for years. Fang and Max have always known each other and I met them a year before we started primary school. Fang and I joke around with stuff and I basically tease Max all the time, but you know in a loving way.

"Okay thanks Max, I'll just ring him to check with him"

"No it will be fine, no need to ring"

"Oh okay, I guess I'll see your pretty little face tomorrow then"

"Yeah, whatever" She doesn't really like being complimented, I think she doesn't believe people when they do. She hangs up, I press the middle button on my phone to hang up.

I get ready for bed then click the middle button on my phone. "What's the time?" I ask

"_eleven forty three pee em" _okay 11:43pm, better go to sleep.

_BUZZZ_Z

The alarm clock wakes me up. I'm a really heavy sleeper so I set it on extra loud. It still takes me a while to wake up properly. I stretch and fall asleep again. When I wake up again I frantically reach for my phone. I can't be late.

"what's the time?" I ask the phone

"_seven oh eight am" _oh shit I'm late.

I don't have time to use my colour detector to find matching clothes, I rummaged around my dresser to feel the thick material of jeans and quickly put them on over my boxers. Oh wait they're of shorts, oh well no time to change. I feel around for a random t-shirt and quickly pull that on. I pull on some socks and my shoes, I think my mum said they were white.

I run downstairs and grab my bag from the bottom of the stairs, I run into the kitchen and grab a waffle off Angels plate

"Hey" She yells as I run out the door.

* * *

*Max's POV*

I got over to Fangs house pretty early that morning I knocked on the door

"come in" I hear Chloe yell. I walk through the hallway and into the kitchen and see Chloe.

"Oh hello Max, Fang is in his room, tell him to hurry up won't you"

I run up all the stairs to Fangs room and knock on the door. "FANG" I yell knocking again.

"um don't come in" He said. His voice is all croaky.

"Um okay weirdo, I'll give you a minute then I'll come in" I hear him sigh from inside

"Just come in" He says, sounding defeated. I open the door and peer around the corner, he's sitting on the floor looking in the mirror.

"being vain are we?" I peer into the mirror and see his face. A black eye stands out, I'm taken aback. His eyelid is slightly shut and surrounded by blue, little whispers of yellow and green float out. He's also skinned his chin.

"What the fuck happened?" I ask, shocked. Fang shrugged. "Seriously Fang, who did this to you?"

"oh! It's from skateboarding" I narrowed my eyes, I doubt skateboarding could cause that level of injury

"Where's it from?"

"skateboarding. I just said"

"How did you get it from skateboarding?"

"My back wheels got stuck in a bench when I tried to jump over it and I fell onto the ground head first" I'm still not sure if I buy it. But Fang is generally a truthful person so I give him the benefit of the doubt, but hmm I'm not sure.

* * *

*Fangs POV*

So Max buys my story. Well kind of, she has been looking at my black eye quite a lot, god why does she have to be so annoying and not believe me. My mum bought the story straight away, but Max can read me just so easily it's going to be hard to slip by. I don't want her to know, she'll do this thing were she goes all caring and baby me; I can defend myself, but not when I'm being beaten up by four guys. I wore a long sleeve black shirt and some black jeans to cover up other bruises. I was really lucky I didn't break anything, but my legs do ache a bit. I got back home at around 11 from stumbling around, I told my mum I had a really bad fall and it took me a long time to get home. Good thing her boyfriend Ian hasn't moved in yet, because I know he wouldn't believe me; he's a paramedic and he can easily recognise bruises from a fight. Hopefully the bruising will go down a bit before he comes back. Now all I have to do is come up with a decent excuse as to why I don't have a phone.

Max and I go downstairs to meet my mum in the kitchen and oh look there's Iggy at the breakfast table eating a big bowl of cereal.

"ah hi guys" He says with a mouth full of cheerios. He puts the bowl up to his mouth and finishes it off then stands up. He's wearing some tight denim shorts and a bright yellow shirt with a smiley face on it.

"tight shorts" I say. Iggy gives me a goofy lop-sided smile.

"yeah. You been checking out ma buns?" he chuckles. We chat around for a couple of minutes and I eat some cereal, then we go to school. I keep on seeing Max looking at me from the corner if my eye.

Okay so I really got used to be one of the oldest at middle school, I'm 5"7 and was the tallest kid at school, now I get here and There are people who are over 6 foot towering over us. Max holds Iggy's hand so he can make it through the crowded hallways. Everyone stares at me as I pass and I hear whispers but can't really make out what they're saying. I hear Iggy laugh.

"What?" Max asks. Iggy chuckles. Because he can't see all his other senses are heightened, mainly his hearing and sense of touch.

"They keep on saying the stuff about the emo kid" he laughs again "hah hah Fang is the emo kid isn't he?" I grit my teeth, I don't like people talking about me I just want people to leave me alone. "hey wait a second" Iggy takes a pause "They said you have a black eye"

"Yeah" Max says "He says he got it from skateboarding". I can sense the sarcasm, but I goes over Iggys head as he goes back to listening to other peoples whispers.

"Hah, one kid just said you gave yourself a black eye to go with your outfit" Iggy laughed. Jeez can people just stop staring at me. Especially Max, she just needs to leave me alone. We see a big sign that says main hall so we walk in. Everybody stares at us, then starts whispering. _Ugh. _

Max tells Iggy the seats are just in front of him and he struts up to them and sits down, we all follow and sit next to him. It's an introduction assembly and a stern looking middle aged white woman comes out and tells us all the rules or something I wasn't really listening. Her eyes meet mine and narrow I can tell she spotted the black eye. _Oh god. _I put my head down and hope no one looks at me.

The day goes by pretty quickly. In most classes we're just told the rules then introduce ourselves. We all have to do science (made up of biology, physics and chemistry), English and Maths, but I chose to also do art, psychology, music, history and French. I'm with Max for English and History, with Iggy in psychology and science, and I'm with both of them in maths.

My schedule is maths, history, morning break, biology, art, lunch, physics. Each lesson and lunch is an hour and morning break is 15 minutes. I get to maths getting lost with about six people asking me about the eye. I get to the maths and science building and find out that though my lesson is at the same time as Max and Iggy we're not in the same class. I'm in the top set, Iggy's in set two and Max is in set four. I get put next to this guy with spiky blonde hair who tapped his pens on the desk, probably a drummer. He turns to me.

"How did you get the eye?" He asks

"Well I was born with my eye" I replied and looked away from him. I just wish people would leave me alone.

"ha ha very funny" He says sarcastically "Come on what did you do? Were you in a fight?" His eyes widen, they're some type of bluish colour.

"No" I say and look away

"You're not very talkative are you?" He nudges me "Come on tell me" I sigh and turn my head to the side

"I got it from skateboarding" I say. He gives me a confused expression

"You can't get a bruise like that from skateboarding" He say.

"I landed face first" I said, correcting him and giving him a stern look

"ah okay" he says, then goes back to drumming on the desk with his pens. "Sorry, where are my manners. I'm Red" he says dropping the pens. "What's your name?"

"Nick" I reply

"Nick the skateboarder" He says to himself "kinda goes together" he says. He drums on the desk a bit more then the teacher walks in to start the class. A man with a Scottish accent introduces himself as Mr McFadden and asks us all the introduce ourselves to the class. That's how most of the classes go. In History the teacher tells us that the boys have to sit next to the girls. Girls holding the hands of their best friends make sad faces and the boys roll their eyes. I raise an eyebrow and smirk at Max and she winks at me as we sit down next to each other. We introduce ourselves and I doodle on my notepad, Max nudges my elbow every so often so it turns into a mess so I glare at her and start again. She's kind of left me alone about the eye, but I'm sure she'll ask again.

Morning breaks and biology nothing interesting happens people keep on asking me about the eye but I just glare at them and walk away. Art was pretty good. We have a cool teacher she gives us these books and a exam paper with 6 possible topics: changes in time, culture, shades, crowds, natural environment, and movement. She says each topic is up to artistic interpretation (which basically means we can do whatever we want) but we need to do at least 3 artist copies, and 3 observation pieces before we start the development on out original art piece.

Each desk is for two people I sit alone on a desk. A girl with redy brown hair sits next to me and smiles. I look at her then look back to the sheet to pick my topic. Movement sounds quite good.

"Hello" She says "what's your name?"

"Nick" I say then look back to the paper. I hear her giggle

"You don't speak much do you?" she smiles "Hey?" I shrug. "um. What topic do you think you'll pick?"

"um" I start "probably movement"

"Oh yeah that will be cool. I'm Lissa by the way" She smiles at me again, I let a small smile slip out.

"hey Lissa" I say "what topic are you going to pick?" I ask. I don't even know why I'm talking to her, but oh well.

"Ummmmmm. Hmmmmmm" she taps her chin with her finger "I think shades would be good" she says.

She asks me lots of questions about what subjects I'm doing, but not a single one about my eye. She tells me a funny story about how she heard some squeaking from her lunch box in the introduction assembly and it turned out that her pet hamster that crawled in this morning, so she had to ring her mum to pick it up. She seems all right.

I meet Iggy and Max for lunch and finish the day with physics. It wasn't too bad, I made a kinda friend.

I walk down to the back of school where my mum is going to pick us up.

"HEY!" I hear some shouting behind me so turn around. Lissa is running down the path clutching onto a canvas bag at her side. "Oh hi Nick, you left your art book" She smiles, then keeps on running to a red car, jumps in then it drives off.

I get into the car.

"Who was that?" Max asks, not facing me with her eyes pointed in my direction. I shrug then she points her body in my direction.

"she's in my art class. Lissa something" I reply.

It was quiet the way home, Iggy told us about how good the learning support was and that they were going to buy a laptop for him that had voice control and recording features for school, but it would be his so he could use it at home as well.

We dropped Iggy and Max of to their homes.

As I went up to my room I dropped my art book and it fell open on the first page. There was some writing on the first page. _'Call me- Lissa 3' _then her phone number was written underneath. My face creased into a slight smile. No. No. I'm not doing this, I'm not going to go mushy as soon as a girl gives me her number. The smile disappears.

* * *

**So thank you very much for reading, please review. **

**Have a lovely day **

**-Jess x **


	4. Andy's back

**I'm trying my hardest to make the chapters longer. I promise. Hope you enjoy ^.^**

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_Chloe watched through the window as her eight year old son got picked up from the school bus with his friend Max. She smiled to herself. Chloe collected her purse and drove to the doctors surgery, she sat down in the waiting room and waited for her name to be called. _

"_Ms Faneli" the receptionist called out "please go to room 8" _

_Chloe sat down and the doctor pulled out a clipboard with the test results. He stroked his chin and his stubble make a scratchy noise. Chloe sat still, but could feel her chest getting tighter every second. _

"_Ms Faneli, I'm really sorry to inform you" Chloes eyes widened "But from these results show you have stage four breast cancer" tears start to flood "This means the cancerous cells have spread to other parts on your body, but luckily it hasn't reached any of your vital organs yet. Don't worry there are things we can do, we can operate, go through radio therapy and chemotherapy- later tests will confirm if you need a bone marrow transplant. I would also advise a double mastectomy to bring the chance of cancer developing again to 5%" Chloe nodded, but the tears continued to flow "I can predict your success rate of around 60%, but we'll have to start treatment right away. Don't worry I'll be there for you all the way" Chloe put her head in her hands and wept. "Ms Faneli. It's going to be okay" The Dr said with a serious face "you'll be taken very good care of" He stood forward and reassuringly placed his hand on her shoulder._

_Chloe calmed herself down and put on a brave smile._

_This couldn't be happening_

_This couldn't be happening _

_THIS COULDN'T BE HAPPENING_

_She took her appointment card and shuffled out of the doctors surgery and drove home without the radio on. _

_Chloe parked outside the house and knocked on the door. _

_A woman about 50 years old answers the door, she has dimples when she smiles and as soon as she lays eyes on Chloe the dimples disappeared. _

"_No. No. Go away we don't want you here, we've made that very clear" The woman started to close the door_

"_Mum I have cancer." Chloe shouted. The woman looked at her daughter and shook her head whilst internally tutting. _

"_That's the suffering you have to deal with for being a sinner" Her words were filled with spite, but Chloe could see sadness in her eyes._

"_mother, don't you care about me, what about your grandchild?"_

"_I don't care for that bastard child and I don't care for you" The woman shut the door in Chloe's face. _

"_YES YOU FUCKING DO" Chloe yelled banging on the door. She could feel tears running down her face, but she was too angry to cry properly. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND? I COULD DIE" Chloe made fists with her hand and banged on the door, neighbours were peering over their walls to see what was happening. Chloe paused, knowing it was useless "you're all cunts" She said then left swiftly. _

_**6 years later **_

*Fangs POV*

"Hey Nick, why haven't you rung me" Lissa says running up to me, clutching onto her canvas bag like she always does. She gave me her number last week, but I speak to her at school, well kind of- I don't really speak much.

"I don't have a mobile" I say "It fell in the toilet" That's an okay excuse, isn't it? But I could of rang her on the home phone, truthfully I don't really want to talk to her that much, I barely know her.

"...okay" Lissa said and looked down at her page, I looked at it too, she'd started sketching the word 'shades' on the A3 size page for a mind map. She looked up at me and caught my eye, so I looked away quickly. "Hey Nick..." She starts, I look to her "You have nice eyes" she smiles.

"Thanks. So do you" I reply. Her eyes are kinda nice, they're like a really sharp green and really big. She lets out a really big smile then looks back to her page.

"Are you still doing movement for your art project" she asks. I nod. She talks quite a lot, but she's nice, so she doesn't bother me all too much. "What are you going to do for it?" She asks

" I was thinking of looking at the way animals move" I replied.

"woah that sounds awesome" she smiled a really bright smile. I gave a small smile back. Then go back to work on my mind map. I can feel her still looking at me, but I don't mind.

I leave art class at the bell and hear Lissa running behind me.

"Where are you going now Nick?" she smiles, she's always like this, asking where I'm going then following me around.

"Um history" I reply.

"I'm going in a similar direction I'll walk with you" she replies smiling. We chat a little on the way, and by chat I mean she talks and I nod and say the odd word here and there.

"Oh I'm here" she says, she stops walking, so I stop too. "Um Nick I was wondering if you want to meet up this weekend" she gave me an awkward smile.

"I don't know I might be busy" I say scratching the back of my head.

"oh" She says sadly. I cringe a little.

"Um. But I probably won't be" I say. I mean she's okay, it won't hurt making one more friend. I see her face light up.

"Okay cool, um can you ring me on your home phone or something?" her smile beams.

"yeah. Sure" I reply. She's kind of cute, but no not in that way. Like in almost pathetic way, not that I can talk or anything I have a few bruises under my shirt from gotten beaten up by some sad losers standing in a park. It might be fun spending a day with her, I've got nothing better to do I'd probably just be hanging around with Max and Iggy, or being forced to unpack even though I've tried my best to avoid it.

"cool, I'll see you later" She walks away with a skip in her step. And I go to history and sit next to Max.

"Yo dude" I say, she turns to me.

"Why do you have that weird smirk on your face?" she asks

"Hi Fang, nice to see you too. Wow you're looking handsome today" I reply sarcastically, clearing the smirk off my face.

Max sighs "yeah whatever" She crosses her arms and leans back on her chair, great now I've upset her- she doesn't appreciate my sarcasm. "Your black eye is going now" she commented, I shrugged. Her eyes narrowed at me "What's up with you?" she asks "you're being really weird. And why does that red haired girl follow you everywhere? Why do you let her oogle at you all the time?"

"Jealous?" I ask, with spite in my tongue. Why does she even care? Her face flushes and she looks away.

Max doesn't speak to me for the rest of the day. We took our bikes in today or I'd have to sit through an awkward car journey with her.

At lunch I find Iggy sitting at a table with a weird array of foods.

"what's that on your plate?" I ask.

"well..." He starts "I couldn't be bothered to ask what food there was, then explaining I was blind and blah blah blah, so I pointed randomly and the lunch lady put it on my plate. What do I have anyway?" He asked me

"um well, you have apple pie with meatballs on top, then for pudding you have a slice of pizza covered in gravy and grapes" I said. Iggy started laughing, I chuckled along with him. "where's Max?" I ask

"she said she was going to sit over there. She's mad at you" he chuckles again "what did you do"

"said she was jealous of Lissa" I mumbled

"oh the red hair girl who's been 'clinging' to you" He says putting quotation marks over the word 'clinging'. How does Iggy know she has red hair, he doesn't even know what red is "What's the deal with her anyway" Iggy asks

"I don't know, she's in my art class. She's just...Nice"

"Is she hot?"

"um" I think for a bit "yeah" Iggy chuckles and has a mouthful of apple pie and meatballs. "what are you laughing at?" I ask

"nothing" Iggy says smiling to himself "nothing at all"

I look over to Max she's sitting with two girls, a blonde one and a brunette one. They chat to each other then turn to Max she either nods or shakes her head then they both laugh and Max smiles slightly. She's not overly good at talking to new people. Her blonde hair is quite curly and rests on her shoulders, she peers her big round eyes at the other two girls and smiles at little bit. She then looks round to me and glares. I quickly turn around and face Iggy. He's already eaten all his food, and I haven't even started my sandwich. I put it back into my bag.

"Hey Igs, want to go walk around?" I ask. He nods.

As soon as I stand up a blast of red hair runs up to me.

"Oh hi Nick" she says

"hi Lissa" I say

"ah so is this Lissa?" Iggy says "Nick talks about you all the time"

"_shut up" _I whisper and elbow him in the side. Then look back to Lissa. "This is Ig- Jeff_. _Um we have to go" I say pulling Iggy away.

"What the hell was that?" I ask. "I do not talk about her all the time"

"I know" He smirked to himself

"sometimes I really hate you. You know"

"nah you don't"

Lunch consisted of Iggy telling me about a prank he pulled on his brother Gareth the other day. He put blue dye in his shampoo. Those two are pretty cool together, they just play pranks and invent little weird things. Like once they used a old car wheel, belts, and rope to make a lift system. And once Iggy got hold of an old lawnmower battery and engine, messed around with them a bit then attached them to his roller blades- that will always be remembered as the day Iggy broke his ankle.

After school I went to the bike racks, Max's bike had already gone. Iggy can go fine on his bike even without being able to see, but his mum makes him get the bus. I get on my bike and cycle home, I open the door. And see Ian, my mums boyfriend, hovering the hallway. _Shit. _My eye hasn't healed up yet, so I run into the kitchen. And there's Ian's daughter sitting on the table drawing, I've been teaching her how to draw recently and she's getting really good.

"Hiya Nudge" I say, my mum sitting on a chair reading her college book tuts at me.

"Her name is _Monique_, Nick"

"No I like Nudge" Nudge says smiling "It's cute" Her hair is tied back into two bunches at the back of her head. She is the sweetest person you'll ever meet. She runs up and hugs me, burying her head into my chest.

"what did you do to your eye?" She asks concerned with a frown on her face, taking a step back.

"Oh I fell off my skateboard, and my face broke my fall" I say

"oh dear! it doesn't look too bad though" She says reassuringly. She smiles "Do you want to see my new room?" She asks. My mum and Ian have been dating for about a couple of years and they bought a house together so we can all live together, so in a way Nudge is kind of my step-sister.

She leads me into her room, my mum decorated it all before me moved it. Her room was a light, royal purple with glittery stars on the ceiling and walls, she had a couple of bean bags in the corner around a small plastic table and a bed on stilts with a desk underneath. She had a big oak wardrobe and a dressing up box by it's side. She had a little easel with a big A3 piece of card up.

"That's where I'll do all my drawing" she said pointing to the easel. "Then I can paint really good like you and paint on everything I own. Not that I'm trying to copy you or anything, it would just be really cool" I smiled, she can annoy me a bit, but I just go along with it.

"I've got to go do homework" I mutter.

"oh. Oh yeah me too" Nudge nods her head and folds her arms. I walk up to my room.

I get to my room and open my art book, Lissas' number is still in it. I have a phone connected to the house network in my room, I pushed it under my bed. I get it up and dial in Lissa's number.

"Hello" I hear Lissa's voice

"Hi" I say

"Oh hi Nick. How are you?" she asks.

"good"

"how's art?"

"good"

"haha. Cool. I'm looking at a lot of shadow art by Kumi Yamashita, it's really good I'm thinking of making a small scale replica of one of her pieces. There's this one where she puts pins in and she winds string around them to make a face and to create shaded areas she puts more pins in the put more string across"

"Wow, that sounds really cool" I say sincerely

"I don't think I could do that one, it sounds really hard"

"Well what if you don't make the model and instead draw it, like just draw dots where the pins should be and lines where the string should be"

"Yeah, thanks Nick. That would work. So are we still on for this weekend?"

"oh yeah, do you want to meet up in town, at the bus station, Saturday?" I ask. It will actually be quite cool to see her, she's nice and likes art. She's quite chilled.

"yeah, yes. That would be cool. Um sorry I have loads of homework, um I'll see you tomorrow around school then. BYE!" and with that she hung up.

I had no idea what to draw for my art project. I thought about drawing the movement of animals, but I don't know how I could turn that into an observational drawing or a artist copy. I get started on my history homework, we have to do a lot of independent research to make an essay plan and I don't even know what do to. Max would usually help me, but she's angry at me so it's probably best to leave her alone.

*Max POV*

I can't believe Fang. What a dick, saying I'm jealous of Lissa. She clings to him all the time, always running up to him with her flimsy little canvas bag. She probably spends hours on her hair everyday and is really self-absorbed, thinking she's a little red-haired wonder. Not that I'm being spiteful because I'm jealous- there's just something not right with her.

My mobile phone flashes. I look at the screen. _1 new message from Fang. _I roll my eyes. I take a deep breath then read the message.

**Come meet me at the park**

No, I'm not going to go. Why does he get to be a dick then expect me to just rush along to see him. I get another text

**It's important **

No. No. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to go. I'm not going.

I find myself walking downstairs and putting on my shoes I walk out the door. Looks like I am going. I hate him so much. I'm going to punch him in the face when I see him and give him another black eye.

I walk into the park. I can't see Fang anywhere. I walk around a bit looking around for him.

"Fang" I yell. No response. I sit down on a bench without a back to it and ring him on my mobile. It rings out. I ring again and it rings out again. Something isn't right. I ring Fangs home phone. His almost step-sister answers

"Hello?"

"Yes Hello, is Fang home. It's Max"

"He's right here" she says "Fang it's Max" I hear her say to him

"Yello- listen I'm really sorry-"

"Why aren't you here?" I ask

"um sorry"

"You texted me to meet you in the park"

"What!? No I didn't" He pauses "Max get out of there, run home" He sounds panicked

"Why? What's going on?"

"I got my phone nicked, I don't have it. Get out of there"

"What?"

"The. I got beaten up by the people who took my phone, just leave" He sounds worried. I feel my eyes widen, and start running. I get close to the exit. "are you leaving?"

"Yes" I huff.

I hear some footsteps other than mine.

"Well, is this little Maxie?" I turn around to see a tall figure.

"I think it is" I turn around and there's another figure blocking the exit of the park. My eyes dart around in all directions, I can't jump over the fence- too high. I could probably take on one of them in a fight, kick them then run, but the other would get me.

"MAX" I hear from the phone still pressed to my ear.

"um, I think they're here" I say.

I run to the side and they follow me another one appears right in front of me. I dart back to where I just came from, dodging them as they jump at me. I run, then look back, then feel a pair of arms grab me. They're tough and cross around my chest. NO NO NO.

"LET ME GO" I Yell kicking my legs in the air the other three laugh and close in on me. The tallest one grabs the phone and gives it to another of them his lips crack a smile and presses the phone to the side of his face.

"Hello there again" I kick the guy in the shins causing him to take a step back and he grips onto me tighter.

"_stay still you bitch" _he whispers with menace in my ear. I yell out

"Help" I shout. Then the guy puts his hand over my mouth. The guy on the phone laughs

"so as you can probably hear, we've got your girl" He pauses and smiles at me "what are you going to do about it?" I let out muffled screams and kick the guys shins repeatedly. He stays strong. I bite his hand and yell some more. The guy who was on the phone smiles at me, showing his pointing teeth.

"Hello sweetie" He says menacingly "So what are we going to do with you?"

* * *

**EEP! So I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm going on holiday on Saturday for a week, so I'll write plently more, it's just I can't upload them unless i manage to find some free wifi somewhere. Don't forget to revieww, bye 3**

**-Jess x **


	5. Saving Max

**so hello, I'm back from my holiday sorry to leave you waiting. Hope this chapter lives up to your expectations ^.^**

* * *

**Earlier that day**

*Max's POV*

"So Max, any suggestions?"

I turn my head to the front of the classroom, my maths teaching Miss Barn looks at me whilst smiling. I don't even know why she bothers to try with me- I'm useless at maths.

"Um" I think for a bit looking at the equation on the board. '2x+ 8 =14x+2' "could you divide the whole thing by two" Miss Barn smiles

"Yes, brilliant Max. Now what" I sit up straighter in my chair looking at the new equation 'x+4=7x+1'

"take away one of each side?"

"fabulous! So what do we have now?"

"ummm..." I look at it "X plus three equals um seven x? "

"you're doing marvellous. So how do we finish this off?"

I focus on the equation, I know I'm the worst kid in the class, everybody puts their faces in their hands waiting for me to finish.

"I don't know" I say

"yes you do. Think. You need to take something off both sides"

"You could um. I look at it. Take an X off each side" I pause and look at Miss Barn- she's nodding her head. "So um. You have three equals seven X. Then you divide each side by seven, so um the answers is X equals 3 divided by seven" I look up to Miss Barn, she's smiling.

"brilliant" She says, "absolutely perfect" she turns to face the class. "Right. I think you've all done so well today I'm going to let you off homework" everyone cheers "but we still have ten minutes left so please quickly finish these equations" She writes the equations on the board.

"Do you want to work together?" I turn to my left and see a girl with sleek white hair tied back into a high pony tail really tightly with no loose hairs. "Hi, I'm Rochelle. Not Rachael, Rochelle"

"I'm Max. Not Maxine, Max" I look to her and she smirks then shakes her head.

"Max, could you come here for a minute" Miss Barn says from the front of class.

"Hey Max, sit with me at lunch, yeah?" Rochelle asks, I don't want to sit next to Fang, so I nod. I walk to the front of class. I don't know why she's talking to me all of a sudden, but I'm crap at making new friends so if someone wants to talk to me then that's cool with me.

"Hi Max, sit down" Says Miss Barn "I think we have a little problem here. You see you're not quite as fast at problems as the other pupils and I think it might be good for you to have a tutor" she says "what do you think?"

"I don't think there's any point. I'm not really worth having a tutor waste time on me"

"Oh no Max, don't say that. Everybody in this class is going to flourish including you, you just need an extra bit of help. So what I'm going to do is have an older pupil help you, how does that sound to you"

" I don't think it will help, I just-"

"Max, you're a very smart young lady, I'm sure you know that to get better at something you need to practice"

"Okay, but-".

"No buts, this is for you own good, you are going to have a tutor or face the consequences" I nodded defeated, then went back down to speak to Rochelle

"What was that about Max?" Rochelle asks, her brown eyes fixed on her page and not on me, she doesn't really care.

"oh I need a tutor" I say. Rochelle nods.

Soon the bell rings and I go for lunch, sitting with Rochelle. A tawny looking girl with messy curly brown hair sits down next to us, she's really tall.

"Hi Ro" she says and sits by us

"This is Tess" She says, she sits next to Rochelle. They talk a bit and I say the occasional think making them laugh. I have no idea if they're laughing with me or at me.

I turn my head to the rest of the dinner hall for a second an meet Fangs eyes. I glare at him then look back to Rochelle and Tess. God he's annoying, I hate that he makes a hug weird one day then calls me jealous the next. _Oh God._ Now he's talking to the clingy girl, she looks at him really weird, like she wants to eat him alive. Her eyes widen when he talks to her, like a tiger when it spots its' prey.

*Iggy's POV*

Because I'm blind I have first priority on the bus, I live in the same town as school I could easily bike or walk home and I know where all the paths are and I could cycle home with Max and Fang because there's a cycle route that doesn't even go on main roads.

I step up into the bus and put my hands on the top of the seats pulling myself further to the back of the bus I sit at the back, but not the very back. I hear everyone else get onto the bus.

"Can I sit here?" I hear a small voice say, a girls voice.

"of course" I smile and move up so she can sit with me.

"You're Jeff, right?" she asks. She smells really nice.

"Yeah"

"I'm Tess" I can hear her let out small breaths. I have super good senses because I can't see, I can hear people talking from farther away and can sense vibrations really well with enhanced sense of touch. In the week I've been riding the bus I've memorised the different turns the bus takes to know when to get off, but the bus driver always reminds me anyway.

"Hi Tess" I don't really know why she was talking to me, most people just come up to me and are like 'so you can't see at all? How many fingers am I holding up? Woah you really can't see at all' it gets annoying- so this was kind of refreshing. "Are you in year 10" I ask, the school has year 10, 11, 12 and 13- I'm in year 10.

"Yes" she replies "so are you, you're in my science classes" I hadn't heard her voice before, I would of remembered it- it's really sweet, but not high pitched kind of like a folk singers.

I chatted to her for a bit then got off the bus and didn't pay attention to the bumps on the road, but the driver reminds me to get off anyway. I walked slowly to the front of the bus and took two steps down then jumped off the bus. I walked on the path to my house, the path ended then I took two steps on the grass then took a step up to the door and opened it.

"hello I'm home" I yelled as I walked in. I don't think anyone's home. I heard some creaking, then felt a small movement from the floor. Somebody was here, I turned my head around pointing my ear into all different directions.

"_BOO"_

"nice try Gaz, but it's pretty hard to sneak up on me, I have super sonic hearing" I said stepping forward slowly and then it got me. I slipped on something on the floor and fell onto my back. _Ouch. "_Ah okay you got me good. But what about the rule where you can't take advantage of the blind?"

"ah that's the thing, I tricked you into thinking shouting boo was the trick which caught you off guard then released the real trick" he explained

"well I guess it was my own fault for doubting your capabilities"

I heard him chuckle and slide his feet along the floor, must of darted off somewhere.

"Gaz!" I yell

"What!?" I heard from the games room

"you could of told me you left"

"oh. Sorry" I sighed and took four steps to the landing, mum had a bar put on the wall so I can guide myself across. I took the bar and led myself to the stairs and took the thirteen steps to the first floor. I then walk into my room and pull my laptop from my bag to get started on some homework.

*Fangs POV*

I lay down on my bed and thought about the day. It was kind of nice speaking to Lissa and cool that I can go see her this weekend. Then I get a pang in my stomach, I really upset Max by calling her jealous, she won't do anything except silent treatment me to the dirt, but I should really apologise to her, maybe later.

I go downstairs, I have no idea what to do for my art project, but I've got a few pictures of a cheetah running so I thought I'd draw all the positions of it, then write about the way it moves whilst running. Not exactly a good idea, but it's a start. I sat myself at the kitchen table and started to faintly draw with a pencil.

"Heya Fang" I look up it's nudge "what are you drawing?" she bounces over to my side and sits down next to me. "ohhhh a leopard, I love leopards. My favourite type of leopard is a snow leopard can you draw one of them next. Pleeeeaaaseee."

"it's actually a cheetah" I say, looking back to my paper

"oh cool, can I draw with you?" I pass her a piece of paper and a pencil and we draw for a bit.

The phone rings and Nudge runs to go pick it up. She loves to answer the phone- more chance to speak.

"Hello" she says. She pauses for a bit "Oh he's right here" she turns to me "It's Max". What? Oh shit. I grab the phone off Nudge.

"Yello- listen I'm really sorry-" I start, and I am. Well kind of I know I should apologise to make things right, but she does overreact a bit.

"Why aren't you here?" she asks, cutting me off. Um what? Does she want me to come to her house or something

"um sorry"

"You texted me to meet you in the park" she says. Nope still not getting it.

"What!? No I didn't" Wait? Andy and co have my phone, oh my god they texted her. "Max get out of there, run home" I'm almost shouting down the phone, Nudge is a couple of meters behind me and I hear her coming closer and poke my back, I push her away.

"Why? What's going on?"

"I got my phone nicked, I don't have it. Get out of there"

"What?"

"I got beaten up by the people who took my phone, just leave" oh my god what are they going to do, why did they want Max, a million terrible thoughts rush through my head, she needs to get out of there. "are you leaving?" I ask

"Yes" I can hear her breathing fasten, phew she's getting out of there. I hear her fast breathing stop, is she still getting out of there?

"MAX" I yell, Nudge pulls on my shirt

"What's going on?" Nudge asks, I push Nudge away.

"um, I think they're here" Max says from the phone. I feel my heart skip a beat then plummet to the bottom of my stomach, I feel sick.

"LET ME GO" Max shouts. _Oh god, oh god._

"Hello again" I hear from the phone. It's Andy. I feel myself gag. I feel a lump at my side. I feel my hands shake.

"leave her alone" I snarl into the phone. I hear him let out a quick breath as if he smiled.

"so as you can probably hear, we've got your girl" He pauses and he lets out another quick breath "what are you going to do about it?" then he hangs up the phone.

Oh my god I feel sick, I run to the sink and throw up, I feel my breathing get rapid, I can't control it. Nudge runs to my side. "Fang, please tell me what's wrong" she looks up at me with her big brown eyes.

"Max...is...in...trouble" I swallow a few times trying to breathe normally. I sit on the floor and put my head in my hands. I take in one slow deep breath and try to calm down.

Okay I need to go help her.

"Nudge, is your dad in?" I ask. She shakes her head. _Fuck. _Oh god what am I going to do? First I need to save Max and I can't do it alone, but also I can't leave Nudge alone and there's no way I'm bringing Nudge with me. I press my hands on my temples. _Think. _I have to leave Nudge here, she's eleven that's an okay age to be alone. Isn't it? "I have to leave you alone" I said to Nudge "to go save Max. I'll take you to next door, you be good okay?" she nods, I kiss her on the forehead and take her to next door. I knock on the door and our neighbour Brigid, I quickly explain I need to go to help a friend, she understands and takes Nudge in.

I run to the park, I can't stop terrible thoughts rushing through my head. I turn into the park. Where are they? I run around looking everywhere. Oh no. I brush my fingers through my hair and look down on the grass to see my phone. I pick it up and I unlock it and throw up again. The screen is one of the guys holding Max's arms back while she glares down the camera lens. These guys are sick, what the fuck is wrong with them. Do they have Max's phone? I select her name on my contacts and ring her. Someone answers it.

"oh hello Fang" I hear the spite in Andy's words "So as you can probably tell we're not there, don't worry we're taking care of your girl.

"Andy" I hear another voice "she keeps on kicking us, we can't even tie her down"

"I don't care, get it sorted" he says to them "now you better come and face us before something bad goes down, so hurry up little boy"

"You better not hurt her" I say feeling queasy

"ha, that's funny kid, like to see you be as tough as you talk" and with that he hangs up. _Shit shit shit. _Okay think where are they, what did I hear on the phone. Max was kicking them and they were trying to tie her up. So they're somewhere with rope with something to tie her to. They weren't anywhere nearby or I would probably be able to hear them, the floor was dry so it wouldn't show footprints. I don't know what to do. I switch on blue-tooth, to see if Max's phone is in range, it isn't. Lets think, Andy isn't the brightest of kids, he won't of taken her to a good location. I think hard, they'll probably be somewhere in the park- just not this part. I cross the road over to the tennis courts- nothing here. I run around and open a gate to the lake. The dark sky leaves the lake black and there isn't any lights except for a few spot lights shine onto the path around it, there were rowing boats in the corner of the lake that you can rent for an hour and aha a boat house. I walked round to it then quickly ducked behind a bush- one of the guys was outside on look-out. I sat down and thought for a little bit, okay okay what do I do? I can't see him too well, he's under a light. He's a little bit taller than me, but quite similar in other proportions I also have the element of surprise on my side and in my dark outfit he definitely won't see me.

I crawled closer to him and he was looking around, he didn't have a torch or anything, so I was still good, then suddenly my phone goes off. He looks at me and spots me, then starts charging towards me. Okay I try and remember some basic self defence tips I got off Max, she took this class back in middle school. He charges at me with his arms outstretched. Just before he gets to me I bob down, he leans down to get me and I stand up and hit his chin with the top of my head then kick him in the crotch, he bends over in agony then I hit his back with my elbow sharply causing him to fall over, then when he's on the floor I kick him in the guts then the knees and run off to the shed. I take the door and try to sneak in but it makes a creak so I am spotted.

"Ah look here he is" Andy says. I see Max in the corner they haven't managed to tie her up, but the tallest one is restraining her arms and she's stretching her legs out to kick the other one. Just then he grabbed both her legs and lifted her off the floor. Andy turned around and nodded at them and they both dropped her causing her to hit her head on the hard floor. I glare back at Andy and take my phone out of my pocket then chuck it square at his head, he grabs his head trying to steady himself and I run to him kicking him in the shins he is unbalanced and swings to hit me. He misses put follows through with the punch, he then falls over and I turn sharply to kick him in the head, but he sticks his leg out and I fall over. I look over to Andy and see he's not passed out, but not in any condition to stand. The other two guys run over to me and start to kick me, but I quickly stand up and punch one of them square in the jaw.

I jump over Andy and they try to follow me, but the tall one falls over him and I kick him on his way down. One more to go. The remaining guy punches me in the chin. _Twice. _

"you gonna give up yet?" He asks I roll my eyes and lift my leg to kick him in the stomach put he grabs it and pushes me to the floor. He's easily the biggest and I know I can't beat him with brawn- it has to be with brains, but I can't think. Oh god! what do I do?

He kicks me in the shoulder and I kick up and I aim for his groin but miss and hit the top of his thigh, sending him slightly off balance but he stays strong. What can I do? I look around and he jumps onto me and starts to punch my face, not too heavily, but repeatedly. Max is passed out, but I hope that's the worst thing that's happened to her- if it was anything worse I'd hate myself forever. I didn't see any bruises on her face, but she could be hurt another way. I kick with my legs trying to free myself, but no use. Then everything starts to go hazy.

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**Sorry if there are a few mistakes, I kind of rushed it so I wouldn't leave you waiting. Please review **

**-Jess x **


	6. Fang, wake up

**I kinda rushed this chapter, but I hope you enjoy it anyway ^.^ **

**Also I haven't put in a disclaimer yet: I do not own maximum ride or any of the characters from the maximum ride novels which appear in my fanfiction**

**p.s when whole sections are in italics it's a flashback. **

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*Max's POV*

What the hell is wrong with these guys? First they beat Fang up then they practically kidnap me, the tall one, who's called Ross keeps whispering to Muscles and then they both look at me and laugh. I've managed to kick Muscles a few times and kick Ross in the shins, but Muscles looks like he can take it and Ross is so tall that I'm probably an ant to him. Ross looks about 6"4. I've given them nicknames, the leader one is called Andy and the Tall one is Ross, but until I knew their names they were Whip it and Curly because Andy keeps of whipping his longish hair to one side, and Ross has curly black hair. The muscular one is Muscles and the last one went outside on look out and he is _so dumb _with absolutely no common sense, so I called him Dunce.

You know if Fang just told me he had his phone nicked this would of never happened, but no he never wants any fuss god forbid it would actually prevent a situation like this. I spit on Muscles as he tried to grab my legs and he punches me hard in the ribs. _Ow fucking ow. _Oh man that hurt so bad, I stretch out my legs and kick him in the crotch as hard as I can. Aha that got to him, he clenches his jaw trying to show no pain. I wriggle from the other guy whilst kicking him and pry myself free then run for the door. _BAM._ Andy sticks his fist out and punches me in the face, I fall over and he kicks me in the stomach then in the ribs, I feel all the air escape my body and I gasp, I feel myself shudder as Andy grabs me and picks me up, I feel weak but I kick and fight with all my strength for him to sit my down on the floor and he says something, I don't know what it was, I feel a bit weird.

Ross grabs my arms again and and struggle then I hear a creak at the door. Must be Dunce, I see they're all distracted and kick, but then Muscles grabs my feet and before I know what's happening I'm dropped to the floor. My head rockets to the hard ground. _Eurgh. _I try to move my limps, can't'. I try to shout out, but instead I just hear myself whimper my head gets heavy and I feel myself sink into the ground.

_My eyes flick back and I'm in my bed. I sit up and look at my hands, they're really small- like a young kid, I am a young kid, around 6. _

"_Max, Nick is here" My mum calls. I pull myself out of bed I take off my powerpuff girls nightie and put on a dark purple t-shirt and some jeans with lots of holes in them, my hair is a mess so my mum will probably make me brush it. There are four knocks at my bedroom door. I open it and Jump on Fang and tickle him. _

"_eurgh stop it" he says so I pat his short hair and get off him. _

"_haha you can't get me off you because I'm stronger" I laugh, then I take his hand and pull him downstairs, giggling. "I need to show you something" I say and pull him into the garage. "Look" I show him my new bike. Fang takes a step back and admires it._

"_that's cool" _

"_And you can share it cause you don't have a bike" I smile at him and he smiles back at me "Plus it has these little things that stick out so we take in turns to stand on them whilst the other one cycles. I feel myself fall over as Fang tackles me with a hug._

"_Thanks Max, you're the best" I smile and we go out and ride the bike. _

_My eyes flick open, I'm on the floor. My mum rushes over. _

"_Oh my goodness, Max are you okay?" She says sitting down next to me. _

"_Oh my god, I'm so sorry" Fang runs over to me, he looks about 11, his hair is long and tied back. "Are you okay?" I look around to see a chair next to me. I remember what happened, I was about to sit down but my chair moved and I hit my head on the floor._

"_yeah, I'm good" I say groggily. Fang rushes to me. My dad pushes Fang out the way and makes a face at him, then he lifts me up onto a sofa. _

"_I think you should leave" He says to Fang_

"_Alex she's fine" My mum says to my dad "Nick didn't mean it" I stand up, still feeling a bit off and run to Fang. _

"_No Fang isn't going anywhere, it was a joke dad, I'm fine" I look to Fang, he's refusing to smile and is instead looking angrily at the floor. "I'm fine" I say to Fang, but he still refuses to look at me. My dad sighs and sits down on the sofa he just put me on. "anyway we've finished tea, so we're going to my room" I say taking Fangs hand and running to my room. As I go past I hear my dad speak to my mum. _

"_I don't know why we let her hang around with that boy" _

"_ALEX" she yells at him._

I feel myself floating up and my eyes open. Everything is blurry. I can move my legs I push myself up and force my self to see. I feel a sharp pain in my ribs and fall back down. Where's Ross and Muscles? I clutch my ribs and stand up I balance myself so I don't fall, I'm bruised and battered and I can't open one of my eyes properly. I look around and see the tall one and Andy on the floor passed out, then Muscles is sitting on top of a figure punching them, is it Dunce he's punching? I look at his shoes, black converses with _Fang _written on the bottom in my handwriting. I gasp and run to the guy. Fang came for me. I kick Muscles in the back as hard as I can, which isn't very hard at the moment. I'm really weak, but I know a lot of self defence. I know pressure points, so I run up to the guy and pinch down as hard as I can on the bottom of his upper arm, stands up and punches me in the chest, and gets off Fang. I kick him in the crotch and as he leans to me I dart out of the way and kick him in the back of the shins so he falls over I kick him again and again, then take a deep breath and fall back. He's rolling around on the floor and doesn't look like he's in any state to cause any damage.

I look to my side and see Fang, I heave myself off the floor so I'm sitting up and shake his shoulder.

"Fang" I say "Fang!" I put my ear to his lips and hear him breathe "Fang!" I start crying "Fang" then he opens his eyes "FANG!" I shout and lean to hug him, then pull him up. "you're okay! But you look terrible"

"speak for yourself" he says coughing, then he looks at me and smiles with his eyes. Before I can stop myself I lean forward and give him a soft kiss and his lips.

"Ow" he says

"oh um sorry" stupid Max, stupid Max. But it was...Nice. Anyway stop don't think like that. He smiles at me then closes his eyes. "no Fang" I pat him on the face "FANG" No response. I put my ear to his mouth, I can still hear him breathing. I pull him up and put one arm over my shoulder. "Fang I can't drag you wake up!" I start crying. I'm in no condition to walk very far myself "Please Fang" No response. I hug him so both of his arms are over my shoulders then bend my knees and pick him up. He's about the same weight as me. I walk 10 meters at a time, then put his feet back on the floor to rest then go off again. I put his body on the grass by the lake and place him in the recovery position. I run back into the building and wince as I put my hand into Andy's pocket for my phone.

I run back to Fang and dial for an ambulance.

"Hello, which emergency service do you require"

"Ambulance"

"Okay I'll just put you through"

"Hello, what's your emergency"

"Yes, um hello. My friend and I were beaten up pretty bad and um he's unconscious. And I was all self defence, but the guys might need an ambulance too and-" I start crying

"Okay what's your name?"

"Max"

"Okay we need to to calm down. Can you tell us where you are?"

"Williams park, by the lake"

"Thank you Max, now are you hurt?" I try to stop sobbing like a baby

"Um well my chest really hurts"

"Okay Max, this is going to sound weird, but can you lie down, and we'll come find you, the first responders will be with you in 2 minutes and the ambulance should get there five to ten minutes later"

"Thank you" I say and put down my phone. Then lay down next to Fang, I put myself in the recovery position and close my eyes.

"_Hello, Miss?" _

I open my eyes and some blue eyes look back at me

"Hello, you're Max right?" I nod my head "Are the other people in the boat house" I nod again "ah okay, we can't find them, so I guess they must of ran away" their face moved away from me and it was a tall blonde woman "Okay the ambulance should be here in 5 minutes so we're just going to try to wake up your friend and my friend here, she said pointing to a guy with ginger hair that flopped over his face "is going to check you over for cuts and broken bones.

The guy presses down gently on my ribcage with the tips of his fingers and I let out a yelp. "Sorry darling, but I think you have a broken rib, you're also pretty bruised. But don't worry you just need a quick operation and a bit of bed rest then you'll be okay" He smiled at me and it instantly filled me with confidence. I looked over to Fang "No don't worry about your friend, Joan knows what she's doing. I think it's just best if you lay down until the ambulance gets here"

I lay down and close my eyes and silently drift to sleep, when I open my eyes I'm in the ambulance with a patch over my closed eye and some bandage tied tightly around my chest which stopped me from breathing to deeply.

"Max!" I look up, it's Ian Fang's step dad. "What the hell happened" He's a paramedic at the local hospital.

"um" I blinked a few times "Well it's a long story, but basically there were four guys and we got beaten up pretty bad"

"I can see that" Ian said with his arms crossed. He looks at Fang and gives a small smile, then looks back at me "Thank you for getting him out safe" He said, whilst still looking at Fang. I looked at Fang to, then remember the kiss, I cringe.

"He helped me more" I said, looking at fang, was lying back, on a bed, bandages everywhere, I can barely see his face. "Is he okay?" I ask

"very bruised, luckily nothing is broken, but we suspect internal bleeding" I nodded and looked back at Fang.

*Fangs POV*

"FANG!" I open my eyes and see Max, she sits me up then looks at me, she looks really bruised. What happened? Did she just save me? I look up into her big shiny brown eyes, her face curls into a smile, but then shows concern. "You look awful" She says

"speak for yourself" I say whilst coughing. She smiles a little bit then I see something click in her eyes and she quickly leans forward and kisses me. "ow" I say feeling the pain on my face, then the rest of pain on my body become apparent. My whole body creaks, I see Max's lips move as I slowly drift away.

_I open my eyes and I'm in a car. Max turns to me excited, we're going on a group holiday. It's the beginning of the school holiday and we're using her mums minivan to get us there. It's Me, Max, My mum, Ian, Ella, Nudge, and Max's mum and dad. Max's hair glows in the sunlight shining through the window, she never brushes it but it's still really nice. She's wearing green shorts and a black tank top. I'm wearing a white t-shirt with black shorts that go to my knees- my mum's trying to get me to wear less black. We decided to go on a camping holiday. We've got a massive 4 man tent for all the kids to share and the parents are sharing their two man tents. I can see Max's dad turning to look at me, I know he doesn't like me and he doesn't try hard to hide it._

_When we get to the campsite Max throws the tent down onto the floor. _

"_how can we get it up?" She says to me. I raise an eyebrow noticing the innuendo, Max narrows her eyes at me "oh shut up" Nudge and Ella don't really get on that well because they can't spend like 10 seconds without getting jealous of each other, I see them from the corner of my eye glaring at each other. _

"_Can you help us?" I ask them, they look at me and nod. It takes ages to put the tent up, but we finally get there. We go on a walk, all 8 of us. Max sticks with me and occasionally shove each other, trying to make the other fall over. Nudge and Ella seem to be warming up to each other. We had a barbecue and our parents let Max and I share a beer, we stay up quite late then go to sleep in the tent, it's cold so we stay pretty close. I went to sleep happy and smelling Max's hair. Man, I love her. _

I open my eyes, what where am I? I look round, and see I'm in a hospital. I hate hospitals. My mum is on a chair next to me she looks at me. Her eyes perk up, but then looks at me with both disapproval and concern. "Nick, my, my. Max has told me what happened" Max!

"Is Max okay?" I ask, I can't recognise my own voice it's all croaky ans strained. Max She saved me from the strong guy, and she kissed me. I feel my face smile slightly, but I brush it away.

"Anyway Alex wants to see you" she says and leaves the room, not answering my question. Great Max's dad who hates me.

Alex walks into the room with a sullen look on his face, then he looks at me and wait. He gives me a smile.

"Nick. Though what you did initially was irresponsible, I would like to thank you very much for going to save Max. I'm very happy that she has a friend as good as you" He looks at me. I'm kind of taken aback.

"Is she okay?" I ask

"short answer no, but she's better than you" He looks at me "And she'd be a lot worse off without you, thank you Nick" He smiles at me and I give him the biggest smile I can summon up without my face hurting. I lay down again my limbs ache, my just moving my head round I look at the hospital room, I'm in my own private room. I become away of a clip on my finger attached to a machine, and some wires stuck to my chest. I think I'm okay, just badly bruised, then I see it a bag of blood feeding into my arm. Yuck urgh I feel sick, I decide not to look at it and lay back down. I just really want to see Max, then I get a knock at the door.

*Max's POV*

I lay in my bed, I didn't break any ribs, but I did fracture one, I'm waiting for a doctor to come in to do some tests to see which pain medication is best for me, as apparently they can heal on their own in a month. I need to just take it a bit easy and it should be fine. I really want to see Fang, but my chest really hurts so I don't want to move.

The doctor prescribes me some pain meds and as soon as they kick in I stand up slowly and try to look for Fang. I ask a nurse and he points me to where Fang is after I lie and say he's my brother- what? They only usually let family members in. I creak the door they my eyes open wide and I quickly shut it. She was there talking to him, he was laughing, the red-haired wonder. I run back to my room and bury my head under my duvet to try to go to sleep. Why does he want to talk to her and not me?

*Angels POV*

Iggy sits in the sitting room barely moving. Both Max and Fang are in hospital so he's pretty upset. I go sit next to him.

"Hey Igs" I say smiling "do you want to play monopoly with me?"

"no thanks Angel" He says, I slump down in my chair

"Mum says you can go see them in a bit" I say reassuringly

"see them? I can't see anything" He leans on the arm of the chair. I sigh.

"come on Iggy don't be like that" I lean on him "They want to see you and hey you might be able to play some pranks at the hospital" he sits up straight and smiles to himself.

"awesome" he says. I smile and jump away. I run to my room.

"BOO" Gaz shouts jumping out from behind the corner, I roll my eyes

"You're not funny you know" I say and rush into my room and crawl under my bed to my secret den. I keep all my favourite things here I lay on my stomach and read my comic books and I store crisps and chocolate under a floor board. I pull back the carpet and lift the floor board and nothing. Somebody has stolen my chocolate.

"GAZZY!" I yell and roll from under my bed to find him. I hear footsteps run down the stairs. I run up to the banister and slide down it then land on my feet and run into the kitchen. "I know you're in here" I yell and run to the closet to open the door then something lands on my head. I scream. "GAZZY!" He had placed a bucket on the top of the door and filled it with slime. My hair is all gross and sticky. "You're going to get it" I say taking of the bucket then I see him at the entrance of the kitchen laughing at me.

Gazzy turns around to run, but instead faces dad. "What's going on here?" Dad says looking and Gazzy, then me, then once again at Gazzy.

"That trick was meant for Iggy" He said, I promise.

"And he stole my chocolate" I say with my arms crossed, but I know he'll get away with it, he always gets away with everything. It's not fair. I'm good all the time and get the same treatment as him.

"Angel go have a bath" Dad says, see what I mean I'm the one getting told off for something he did.

"Why are you telling me off. Tell him off, he always gets me in the middle of his stupid pranks, it's not fair"

"Angel, sweetie, please" He rubs his head and I leave the room, but then I hear his voice raise a little as I go up the stairs. He must be telling Gazzy off- YES!

I run the bath and spotted a bottle of bubble bath. Oooooh. I open the lid and squeeze the whole bottle into the bath and watch the bubbles form. I jump into the bath and water spills over the side with a mass of bubble. I turn the taps and lie down into the bubbles, then pat them onto my head and chin so I have bubble hair and a beard. I look at the side of the bath and get all of the stuff in the bath with me. I put in some bath bombs, squirt strawberry shampoo in my hair, put shaving foam on top of the bubbles and sprinkle in some bath salts. I peek my eyes at Gazzy's shampoo, he doesn't like the shampoo that we all use cause he says it's too girly, but he's just being a baby. I sniff it and it smells all chemically and gross, but then pour it into my hands and it's bright blue, cool! I put it in my hair and rubbed it in.

I got out the bath and threw towels onto the floor to soak up the water, then wrapped myself in 4 towels so I was super comfy and warm. I ran to my room and got out my hair brush to start brushing my hair, the slime Gazzy put in that bucket better be washed out. I look at my hair, oh no. It's blue. I scream "GAZZY!" and put my head in my hands. I hate him so much.

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**So thank you very much for reading. I wanted to put a bit of Angels point of view as I've been neglecting the other characters and need to start introducing them, so I'm sorry if it was but in a bit clumsily. Also I'd like to thank:**

0o0-Happy-Dagger-0o0

XDont't-Panic-SkyX

hanster9

Guest (whoever you are)

**Thanks for your reviews, it's really motivating to know people enjoy your story. **

**-Jess x **


	7. Hospital fun

**Sorry this is a kinda short chapter, just want to add in a hospital scene to tie up lose ends about how badly Fang and Max are injured. hope you enjoy ^.^**

*Max's POV*

"Max" I look up. Fang? Oh it's Iggy. IGGY!

"IGGY" I say perking up. I jump off my bed and run and hug him

"You must be okay if you can hug me that tight" He laughs

"Yeah just a fractured rib, it will heal on it's own. I think I'm bruised a bit and I have a pad on my eye with an eye-patch on top"

"arr. Pirate Max" I punch him lightly in the chest "Max the funniest thing happened at home. Okay so I pranked Gazzy by putting blue hair dye in his shampoo, but Angel used it, and well see for yourself" I look behind him out the door and see Angel with her arms crossed with blue hair. She glares at me. Oh dear.

"It's not funny" She yells at Iggy "mum says you have to pay to get it dyed back" I feel sorry for Angel sometimes she always gets caught in the middle of Gazzy's and Iggy's pranks. Iggy laughs and walks up to her.

"If it helps I have no idea what you look like, or even what blue is, so I don't even get to enjoy this prank" Angel keeps her arms crossed, but lets a little smirk slide. "Plus you are super gorgeous regardless of your hair colour, so who gives a damn?" Angel uncrosses her arms and smiles at Iggy, she takes his hand and puts it to her face so he can tell she's smiling.

"Thank you Igs" She says and then looks to me. Her angelic blue eyes practically pierce through my soul "What happened to you?" she asks. Okay so even though Angel can act pretty mature she is still 6 years old so I have to be careful.

"Um well you see... some bad boys, who aren't very nice did this to me" Angel gasped

"they hit you?"

"ur, well yes"

"But you hit them back?" her eyes widen

"um, yes"

"cooool" Angel smirks. Gazzy runs in and Angel stops smirking and goes back to crossing her arms.

"Hi Max. cool eye-patch" he says then looks to Iggy "Code red" he says. Iggy raises his eyebrows and then they both run off together. I give a questioning look to Angel and she shrugs.

"Is Fang okay?" she asks me

"um yeah, he's busy right now though" with the red-haired wonder, eurgh.

"busy with what?" she asks

"he's speaking to someone else" I explain

"So?" she puts her hands on her hips "We're going to go see him, where's his room?"

I tell her where he is and she pulls me along and we open the door, to see the red-haired wonder practically drooling over Fang. I cough and they both dart their eyes to our direction, Fangs eyes light up and the red-haired wonder looks shocked.

"Max!" Fang says, his eyes twinkle and he gives me a goofy smile. My eyes graze over Miss red head and she gives me a small smile.

"Hi, I'm Lissa" She says sliding away from Fang ever so slightly. Angel hops over the Fang and sits next to him.

"Did you beat up the bad guys too?" she asks Fang.

"yeah" he says and looks to me, I move closer and sit down on a chair next to the bed. Lissa and Angel stay sat on the bed that Fang is laying on. Angel turns to Lissa and starts asking her loads of random questions then Fang turns to me.

"You okay?" He asks I nod. "I'm sorry" He says, I nod with my eyes are fixed on his. He has a bruised face and a big cut on his bottom lip. "do you forgive me?" I nod once more and he rolls his eyes and turns back to Lissa. I sigh internally and listen to Lissa trying to answer all of Angels questions.

*Gazzy's POV*

"Hey it is" I say to Iggy, pointing to the code red. He takes in a deep breath and sighs. What is a code red, you may ask; it's only free food. This free food is in the form of an unattended cake trolley outside a doctors conference room, we quickly grab as much as we can and run to Fangs room.

"Wow, where did you get that from?" Angel asks her eyes widening.

"Who's in here?" Iggy asks

"Me, Fang, Max, Lisssa and now you guys" Angel says, Lissa must be the red-haired girl sitting near Fang "What do you have there?" she asks

"We have cake" Iggy says, placing a plate with a big, fat chocolate cake on Fangs knee, then holding out a plate of chocolate chip cookies, I see Max's eyes widen- she's a sucker for a chocolate chip cookie. I placed a plate of fairy cakes on Angels lap and kept hold of a plate of brownies.

We all stuffed our faces, until it was all gone. Now Lissa doesn't look like the type of girl who is used to eating loads of junk food, but she almost ate as much as me.

"What happened then" I ask Fang. He sighs

"it's kinds of a long story" He says. The thing with Fang is he doesn't like talking for a long time, so I turn to Max.

"What happened Max?" I ask her. She looked at me sheepishly.

"um. I don't want to talk about it" She says, looking down "I've already had to explain it to my mum. It's just not a nice thing to remember"

"aw please" Angel begs, then looks to Fang, but he shoots her a stern look and she quickly drops it. The room goes silent so Fang switches on the TV and we watch some cartoons. I look over the Fang, he's getting quite close to that Lissa girl, ew gross. I nudge Iggy and we both run out of the room.

"Come on dude lets go pull some pranks" I say rubbing my hands together.

*Ella's POV*

Mum and I rush the the emergency room. I got back from dancing and mum was pacing in the sitting room, and said Max had cracked a rib. We got in and to her room, and she wasn't there.

"Oh my god!" mum exclaimed "where have they taken her" the right on queue we hear some laughing, Max's laughter. MAX!

*3rd Person*

Max's mum and Ella run into the room to see the group sitting around laughing, they roll their eyes then join in with them, eating cake.

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**Hope it was okay, please let me know what you think of it and review. **

**-Jess x **


	8. Back to school

**Sorry this took a while, but hope you like it ^.^**

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*Max's POV*

I can't believe I have to go to school, I have a cracked rib and I have to go to school. This is unbelievable. Fang, however is relaxing in a hospital bed having people send him grapes and get well soon cards. He was fine when I saw him, though I didn't get to talk to him with Lissa hanging onto him. How did she even know he was in hospital? She's a clingy freak is what she is.

I trudge to maths and sit down next the Rochelle, she turns her head to me.

"heya Max" she says.

"Rochelle" I nodd

"Hey Max, what type of music do you like?"

"um, well I kind of like all music"

"ah cool, cause my friend and his band are playing tomorrow night and I thought you might want to go with me"

"uh yeah, that would be cool" I say and smile at her. We chat for a little bit about bands and video-games until Miss Barn comes into the classroom and starts the maths lesson.

Rochelle invites me to sit with her are lunch. "sorry I can't" I say "I'm hanging with my friend Ig-Jeff"

"Oh come on, bring Igeff along"

"it's Jeff, just Jeff. Sorry I was using his nickname"

"um okaaaay" Rochelle always has her light blonde hair tied back into a very high pony tail. She wears usually black trousers or jeans with a t-shirt and a navy or black blazer. She always looks very smart and her clothes are kind of a feminine spin of a two-piece suit. She doesn't wear any make-up except for a small flick at the edge of her green eyes. "But bring him, everyone's kinda all bleh, and you're cool so I'm guessing this Jeff is too" she smiles at me and we go get some lunch. I look over to the corner of the lunch hall and she the flash of head hair that is Lissa. I think about how she was leaning over Fang in his bed and internally shudder. Because of her I didn't get to speak to Fang, we were all rushed out of his room and I was sent home just about the time we finished all the cake Iggy and Gazzy 'found'. I need to talk to him, I need to say how grateful I am, I need to hug him and make sure he's okay, I need to tell him off, I need to- the kiss. I kissed Fang. I gulp as the sudden realisation hits me. I liked it. I liked it a lot. Do I like Fang? I don't know, I don't think so. I don't. He's my pal, my best friend forever. Our mums always joked that when we grew up we'd probably end up going out, but I didn't think I'd ever feel that way about me. No, I don't like him; the kiss was like friendship kiss because I was so glad to see him- yeah that's it.

I look around the hall "there's Iggy- Jeff, I mean Jeff" I say to Rochelle. We go and sit next to him, "Hi Igs" I say "um I mean Jeff"

"Who else is here?" He asks, he knows I only call him Jeff around other people.

"Rochelle, from my maths class"

"Hey" Rochelle says, as Tess sits down with us

"oh hi Jeff" Tess says

"Tess? Long time, no see" he says then laughs "I mean long time, no hear" Rochelle gives a confused look to Tess.

"We get the same bus" Tess explains.

"Hey Jeff, I was saying how our friend's band is playing tomorrow night, do you want to come?"

"cool, yeah if Max is going" Iggy says a bit unsure of himself. He is always up for anything, but he doesn't like new environments much with lots of new people. "Are you going Max?" He looks to me, like managing to look at me in the eyes, they're super light blue.

"yeah, we'll go together" I say reassuringly, I see a small smile rise from Iggy's face.

"cool" he says "who is this band anyway?" he asks

"my friend Red, he plays the drums, then the other band members are called Kim, Jean, and Lucille. I don't know them very well"

"I know Lucille" Tess says "she plays the bass and is the lead singer, um I think he said Jean plays like 5 different instruments, I'm not sure about Kim"

"I'm not sure either, maybe she sings as well?" Rochelle asks

"maybe" Tess says.

Tess and Rochelle seem really cool. They're very chatty to each other so it's hard to get in a word edgewise. Iggy and I laugh along with them, we're used to be the ones doing all the talking due to Fang not being a talker, so this is good.

*Fangs POV*

I lie back down on my hospital bed, they won't let me go yet. I feel fine, I can stand up but I have to pull a metal thing on wheels along for my IV- which I don't even need as I feel fine. I had a small amount internal bleeding around my stomach area. Both my mum and dad, um I mean my mum and Ian, are at work. I lay back on my bed, and ow ow ow. My sides do hurt quite a bit, to think of it my legs are kind of throbbing.

Having everyone around was a good distraction from the hospital, but now they're gone I start to feel sick every so often, I close my eyes to distract myself from the needle in my arm. I feel like I just swallowed a rock, and the tips of my fingers get all tingly. I press the button to get a nurse to come over.

"Hello" he says and props me up into a sitting position. "I think you need a rest from the IV" he takes off the tape and slowly removes the needle, I grit my teeth but feel a lot better now it's removed. He puts a bandage on it and presses down. I lay down and sigh, it's such a relief. "Now in your IV there was a mix of pain killers and saline solution, your internal bleeding was nothing to worry about as any physical signs of blood loss have gone, so though we can't discharge you yet you're going onto a different pain killer and no drip. Your doctor will prescribe the painkiller later" he pauses "Are you going to eat anything today?" I shake my head, I didn't want to eat any of the cakes that Iggy and Gazzy brought and I still don't want to eat today. The nurse sighs. "You gotta eat some time. If you don't you'll have to go back on the drip" he gives me a smile "I'll help you fill in your dinner form. Do you want chicken nuggets, sandwich or soup?"

"soup"

"okay, and do you want that with some chips?"

"no"

"come on you have to have some more than just soup, the chips here are really nice, you won't regret it"

"fine" I say

"great, and for pudding do you want yoghurt, fruit, or a brownie?" my stomach aches, I can still feel where it was kicked and punched. A brownie sounds nice, but I just imagine eating anything and I feel sick. I think I'll just pick that to make the nurse happy.

"A brownie, please" I say

"okay, that's great. I know hospitals make you feel sick, but you haven't eaten for a while and you need food to heal" he smiles again, it's really hard to hate him. I don't want to eat, but I know he's right.

An hour later the food arrives on a red plastic tray, it does smell good. The soup is tomato and the chips do smell really nice. I eat about a quarter of the soup and half of the chips. I pick of the brownie and go in to smell it, then it hits me, the stale smell of the poorly ventilated room, the pang of disinfectant. I drop the brownie back on the plate. My meal came with a bottle of water and a glass of orange juice, I drink them down quickly then put my head under the covers of my bed. I close my eyes and hope I ate enough to not be put back onto the IV drip. I drift off.

*3rd Person*

"_What do you mean mum?" Fang looks up at him mother. She puts her head in her hands. _

"_we have no money" she whispers angrily, Fang pauses and looks at the bottle of coke he took from the shelf of the supermarket. _

"_oh" he says and puts it back "sorry, it's okay I'll drink water" Chloe looks down at her son and smiles _

"_no, I'm sorry". Between not being able to work and doctors bills Chloe has to of made some sacrifices, living on a very tight budget. "come on, we just need bread, eggs, milk, a few packs of noodles and then some tinned vegetables" She says knowing she only has exactly thirteen dollars and seventy three cents. _

_They buy the food they need and walk home, it starts to rain. Chloe drops the bags of shopping and kneels down on the floor, she starts to cry. Fang goes up to her and looks her in the eyes, then hugs her. _

"_come on mum, you need to go to bed" He looks at his pale mother, her hair limp and with bags under her eyes. "mum, please you'll catch a chill, your immune system" Fang hugs her close "mum, come on" he tries to stay strong. "mum" he feels his mothers tears on his shirt touch his skin, he takes hold of her wrists "mum please" he says and looks into her eyes. _

"_I'm so sorry" Chloe cries "I'm so sorry you have to deal with me"_

"_mum, no, please don't say that" Fang, though only eight years old understands the severity of his mothers condition. She has cancer, she has no income, Val is paying their rent but can't do much more for them, him and his mother are living on the bare minimum. Fang swallows and tells himself to stay strong. He pulls on his mothers skinny arms to pull her up, her legs are wet from kneeling on the ground. He takes the shopping and his mothers hand and they both go home._

_When they arrive home they find a care package from the charity; inside for Fang is a pair of used trainers, a notepad and crayons and a hand-knitted jumper; for Chloe there's a hat, a blonde wig and a comforter. The package also has some soap, shampoo and a lasagne for them to reheat. Chloe smiles. _

_Twice a week Chloe has a hospital appointment, Fang has to go with her. He watches behind a screen as his mother goes into machines, gets injections and given pills. Then every night after the appointment sits outside the bathroom as he hears her throw up. His mother comes out._

"_Nick, you're supposed to be asleep"_

"_I know" she sighs and comes to his eye level _

"_Look Nick, I think it's better if you don't come to my appointments with me. Val says she's switched her shifts so she can look after you while I attend them. Hey wouldn't you rather play with Max then be in that smelly hospital?" _

"_you can't go alone" _

"_Nick. I'm not. You can't come with me, I know you want to be there, but you don't like it there, it's making you upset"_

"_no it's not"_

"_it is Nick" Chloe starts to raise her voice "you're not coming with me any more and that's final"_

"_but I can handle it" Chloe stands up straight and puts her hand on her forehead._

"_Nick, please, will you do this for me?" Nick looks down sadly and nods_

"_Thank you, you're a good boy" She says and takes him to his bedroom, knowing that he'll only creep into her bed later. "night night, sweet dreams" she says, then blows into the room as she flicks the light switch off, so it looks like she blew out the light. _

"_Night" Fang says, and rolls over in his bed. _

*Fang's POV*

"Fang" I open my eyes. "Hi Fang" I blink a few times and see it's no one other than Iggy.

"Hi" I say and sit up, and oh god, the IV is back in my hand. I try to ignore it. "where's Max?" Iggy rolls his eyes.

"Oh come on no what's up? Just straight onto where's Max? Do you even care about me?" Iggy says starting to raise his voice. I feel a bit taken aback.

"um sorry, it's just-" I feel the IV twitch in my hand "sorry I just haven't spoken to her since the accident, and I kind of want to talk to her. I still love you man, you know that" I don't want to talk anymore, I look at the IV again, I remember when my mum was in hospital and all the needles that went into her, I feel my eyes go all funny, I press the assistance button. "Iggy get a nurse" I say

"what? Are you-"

"please" I hear my breathing quicken, I can't control it. It's just like after the phone call I ad with Max. I have short little breaths over and over and I can't control it, my eyes start to water like I'm crying, but I'm not even sad. Iggy rushes out of the room.

"help, please" I hear him yell and a doctor runs in with my nurse.

"Okay Nick, can you hear me?" I close my eyes and nod, my chest starts to burn. "You're having a panic attack, I'm going to need you to try and control your breathing. I start to feel myself cry. "he's hyperventilating"

"Listen Nick, can you breathe with me, swallow when you breath in, it helps" my nurse says. I gulp and try to stop the air escaping from my lungs so quickly. It takes a few minutes, but I feel my breathing go back to normal. I curl into a ball and close my eyes.

"I think you should come back later" I hear my nurse says to Iggy "or stay and be really quiet so he can sleep"

"please can he stay" I whisper. God I sound so pathetic, I'm not a big fan of myself at the moment.

I open my eyes and Iggy is sitting next to me. "Hi" I say feeling a pain in my chest as I talk.

"Hey Fang, how are you feeling?" Iggy asks, he turns his head to me, he's wearing his sunglasses, which he hardly ever wears. "Sorry for panicking you" he says

"It wasn't you, it was the IV" I say

"Oh?" Iggy stands up and takes off his coat, her then reaches out and his hand hits the stand, he puts his coat on top of it. Then passes me his sunglasses. "Now you don't have to see it" I smile to him and put on the sunglasses.

"thank you Iggy"

"You asked where Max was,before. She's staying behind at school for her maths tutoring so she'll miss visiting hours. Your mum is looking after Nudge and revising for her test, but Ian can come see you just before his shift starts"

"okay cool" I'm really glad Iggy is here, but I would prefer it if none of us were here, I really just want to go home. I kind of want to see Lissa. But must importantly I just want to talk to Max.

*Max's POV*

"Hello Max, right are you ready to get started" Miss Barn asks, I nod "righty-o You just do some quick questions while we wait for your tutor, I'll be in the maths department office" I open up my book and have a look, we've started to transfer the equations into graphs, don't even ask me how that's possible. I was just starting to get the basic equations, now I have to turn them into graphs- I don't get it.

"Max, is it?" I look up from my table to see a buy with floppy hair and hazel eyes.

"yeah..."

"Hi, I'm Sam. I'm your tutor"

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**let me know what you thought. thanks for reading**

**-Jess x **


	9. The gig

**I'm going to be honest and say I didn't read through this chapter for mistakes, but I've gone so long without updating and I'm going away again, it just wouldn't be fair to leave you hanging. hope you enjoy it ^.^**

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*Nudge's POV*

"Mum, can we go see Fang please?" I beg, I haven't seen him in hospital. He's okay, but I want to go make him feel better. I can draw a picture for him.

"Sorry, but visiting hours are over, he'll be coming home soon"

"But he doesn't like hospitals"

"I know honey, but he'll be home soon anyway" she smiles uncertainly and goes into the sitting room. I stay sat at the kitchen table with my colouring pencils. I draw some faint lines in purple then swoop blue to join all the lines together. I shade it in to create a spiral stair case. I get a black crayon and use that for darker shading. It's pretty good. Well it's okay. I run up to Fangs room and put it on his pillow.

"NUDGE PHONE" mum yells, I rush downstairs and take the phone from her.

"Fang?" I ask

"um no" Ella replies.

"oh, hi" I pause "how are you" I say to be polite. Ella is 13 and the year above me at school whilst I'm 11 and almost 12, I like her, but we don't really have anything in common. We used to get along really badly, but we're kind of cool.

"I'm good Nudge. You okay?"

"yeah, I'm fine" I can always talk for ages with everyone, but I just feel Ella always judges me, so I stay quiet.

"soooo..." she starts "I was wondering if I could come rounds tomorrow, because Max is at a gig, and it's mums and dads date night and I can't be home alone"

"um, yeah, that's fine. I'll just check with mum" I press the phone to my chest "mum is it alright if Ella comes round tomorrow?"

"Ella?" she says, confused

"Yeah Ella, she can't be home alone"

"sure" I take the phone back up to my ear

"yep that's fine" I say to Ella. I hope she brings something so I don't have to talk to her too much.

"cool, bye Nudge" and she quickly hangs up. I sigh and sit down with mum to watch tv with her.

*Max's POV*

"So it's quite simply once you follow the steps" Sam says, as I finish the graph.

"yeah, it's cool" He's really nice, a little bit awkward, but nice. He's two years older than me and in one of the top sets, he wants to be a teacher when he's older so he thought doing some tutoring would be good experience, and he is good at it. Sam is patient and doesn't laugh at me when I'm my stupid self.

"well I think that's enough for today, it's already five" he packs up his pencil case "You can have my notes, and do you want to meet up the same time next week" he passes me the sheets of paper we were working on.

"yeah that's great, thank you so much" I say smiling, he nods back at me and flicks his hair.

"And, um I'll give you my number if you need any more help, but on Tuesdays I'm at swim practice and I work at the weekends" he says scribbling numbers on the notes and underlining it.

"okay thank you very much" then he laughs

"You don't have to say thank you so much. When can you do?"

"I can usually do most days, but my mum works later on Mondays and Tuesdays, so she can't pick me up"

"ah okay, what does your mum do?"

"she's a Vet"

"cool. So I'll see you next week unless you need to see me sooner. Bye Max" he says picking up his rucksack and walking out of the room. I pack up my stuff, and go see Miss Barn who's marking homework in the office.

"I'm off now" I say, she lifts he head up

"okay, bye Max, oh how did it go by the way?"

"It went well"

"Ah good, I'm glad he asked to tutor, I have too much marking to get through to do it myself. He's a lovely boy isn't he?"

"um, yeah he's nice" I says

"Okay, well I'll see you tomorrow Max" she smiles and I walk out of the maths office to the entrance of the school and spot my car, I jump in to see mum.

"heya mum" I say smiling

"why are you so happy?" she asks

"good lesson, the tutor is well nice"

"I'm glad. Oh Max, could you help with tea, I need to go pick your dad up from the train station"

"Okay" dad works in the city and commutes to work. He's not at home much, so if I'm honest we're not all that close.

Mum drops me off and I go into the kitchen and look at the note she left me. Lasagne_- mince, and cheese sauce is already made, just put sheets of pasta on top of the mince in three layers then put cheese sauce on top. Cook for 30 mins in oven which is already preheated. _Okay, okay this should be okay. I can do this.

.

.

.

.

_OH MY FUCKING GOD_

"Ella!" I yell "oh my god Ella I need you help" I yell trying to open the oven door, put it's all stuck together. I switch off the oven, or something. I look down at the switches and notice I turned the hob on, my hair falls down onto my face, and- _Oh holy shit it's on fire_. I start screaming and run to put my head under the tap. I turn it on quickly and let the water rush over my head and the flame hisses out.

"what do you- oh god. Max what the hell have you done?" I turn to Ella's shocked face

"The oven won't open and it's burning" I scream

"have you pressed the release door button?" she replies, calmly

"a button!?" I jump up and rush to the oven "Which button!?" I look to Ella, she rolls her eyes and pushes a button on the stove door, then pulls the handle down. A cloud of smoke flies out the oven and into our faces, then the smoke alarm goes off.

"oh my god, get that thing out of here" Ella yells, waving her arms around as an attempt to get the smoke out of her face.

"OKAY, OKAY, I'M DOING IT" I scream, I put on the oven gloves and carry it out into the garden, smoke fills the house and we start to cough. Ella opens the door and I put the lasagne down on the grass only for it to catch fire. I sigh and turn to Ella "Turn on the sprinkles".

We couldn't go back in the house from all the smoke. I accidentally turned the heat up too much and put it in for an hour and a half instead of half an hour. Wait it's been in for an hour and a half? Where's mum and dad? Ella and I sit on the wet grass outside the house next the the dish of charcoal that should have been a lovely tea. "Why aren't they back yet, do you think the train's delayed?"

"Well the station is only 20 minutes away, so 40 minutes for there and back. It's possible it could be delayed and hour" I say. We stay sat in silence, waiting for the car to pull into the drive, but it doesn't arrive- where are they?

The smoke clears from the house so Ella and I go to back inside and make ourselves some cereal and watch some classic episodes of doctor who. I think they're okay, but Ella us absolutely crazy about them. We're watching the doctor who has blonde curly hair and a colourful jacket on.

"Why do we have to watch the old ones?" I ask Ella.

"Well, firstly I think they're better written and also they only release like 6 new episodes a year which is ridiculous. So this is where I get my doctor who fix" She replies not taking her eyes off the screen. Her ears perk up. "Did you hear that?"

"what? No. Hear what?"

"A door slam" she turns to me. "a car door" I didn't even hear a car park in the garage and here's Ella hearing someone shut a door.

"I don't care" my mum yells, bursting through the door. My head darts in the direction on the sound of the doors hinges creaking against the force. She takes two steps up the stairs, I hear them loud and harsh, then my dad walks in.

"Val, I"

"You didn't even discuss this with me, what do you expect us to do, uproot our whole lives. You can't make these decisions without me, this family does not revolve around you" She runs up the stairs and I hear her slam the door. Dad looks through the doorway at Ella and I.

"Well what are you looking at?" he shouts and walks into the kitchen. I look to Ella, she hates shouting, she's frozen where she was sitting, then delicately stands up and walks up the stairs. I stay watching the TV, knowing Ella probably wants to be left alone. What the hell just happened?

*Fangs POV*

I wake up in the morning and feel a cold rush in my hand, I turn to my side to see the nurse fiddling with my IV on my wrist. She sees me looking at her.

"please, I don't want it" I say, she looks down at me

"sorry, but it's good for you" she smiles. Where's my other nurse?

"I can't deal with it" I say, "please, please take it off"

"look honey, it's for your own good-"

"no" I snatch my hand away from her, I pull the tape off my hand and pinch the top of the needle, I yank it out and feel the sharp sting of pain as a little dripple of blood comes out. The nurse rolls her eyes.

"you do what you want, but you ain't gonna be going home soon without eating or being on the drip, come on it's Saturday tomorrow, don't ya wanna be home for the weekend?" I sigh and pull Iggy's sunglasses from my bed side table and put them on.

"Fine" I say and lay back I wince as the needle is put back into my flesh and feel the cool tingle as gravity allows the medicine into my blood. I can't see what's happening, but I can sure as hell feel it.

I switch on the music channel on the tv and stay still for the rest of the day. I try to ignore my surroundings for the rest of the day and eat as much as I can for lunch, then around four I get a knock on the door.

"um, hello" I take off the sunglasses and look up.

"Oh hi Lissa" I can hear my own voice and it sounds a lot better

"You look better" She said. Lissa was my first visitor and saw me at my worst, she lives near the park and heard what happened. "um I was just coming to say, um I think we should call our date off, not because I don't like you- because I do. But it's like I don't want you to come out when you're ill" Date? She never said us meeting up was a date thing. I look at Lissa, she's wearing a green dress that matches her eyes with sleeves that go to her elbows. she smiles at me "I got you these" she hands me some flowers "I know flowers are kinda a girly thing, but they're nice" I look at Lissa and force a smile. She puts the flowers of the bed side table and carefully avoiding the tubes feeding into my hand she sits down on the edge of my bed. She looks at my hand. "Oh dear your hand looks pretty bruised" she carefully slips her hand under mine so our palms are touching, with her other hand she carefully traces around my fingers. "sorry does this hurt?" she looks to me and I shake my head and sit up. "good" she says and kind of leans forward and touches the back of my head and before I know it she leans closer and kisses me. My eyes widen, and hers close. It's a little bit awkward as I'm kind of half lying down, but it's... nice. I place my hand gently on her back and then she pulls away and smiles at me. "um so ring me, we should go out another time" she says

"ur yeah sure" she kind of skips out of the room and I stay sat up in my bed, I kinda feel a lot better now.

*Max's POV*

It's after school now, I'm on a bus to the hospital, it's around 4.10, I have no idea what's going on with mum and dad. I went to check on Ella before I went to bed, she had a pair of scissors and was trimming the tips of her hair. I asked her if she was alright and she just looked up at me and nodded. I made her get into bed and then went to sleep myself. I'm feeling really stressed out, I just want to see my bud.

I look to the front of the bus and see a sign, only a mile until I'm at the hospital. The windows rattle and the seats squeak. I haven't looked round it much, and to be honest, I don't want to, I just stay focused on the window and try not to breathe in.

I step off the bus and go into the hospital, sneaking through and off to Fangs room. I just really need to talk to him- y'know. My heals turn a corner and I peek at the glass panels on the doors to check which one's Fangs. Most of the people in the private rooms are old people, like they're the only ones who can afford to go privates, Fang's mum's boyfriend works here so he managed to get him a private room. I look through the last window and stop dead in my tracks. I see Fang kissing her, _Lissa. _I feel my cheeks burn and turn around. She was holding his hand and with the other hand pushing his head to her, he had his hand on her back. I don't like it, why does he have to kiss her?

I need some fresh air. I leave the hospital and lean against the wall outside, it's painted yellow but a greyish yellow. I look to my side and there is a collection of people smoking, one of them is in a hospital gown, I look at him and he glares at me. I look away quickly and the image of Fang kissing Lissa flashes up in my mind. I feel pin pricks in the back of my eyes, and I clench my fists. I feel angry and sad at the same time, but I don't know why. I sigh and look at the guy smoking in the hospital gown, he glares at me again so I look down at the floor. I don't know why I'm getting like this, why do I care so much about who Fang's kissing? I don't care, yeah I don't care. I walk back to the bus stop. You know what, screw Fang, if he wants to make out with the red-haired wonder then let him- see if I care.

I get back home "Hello" I shout into the house.

"We're in the kitchen" my dad says. We? What's happening? Everyone's sitting at the table. "sit down Max" dad says and I sit down next to Ella.

"So you're dad's been offered a job all the way across the country. And he took it without discussing with us" she looks to my dad angrily

"The position is only for a year" my dad exclaims

"we're moving?" Ella asks, shock on her face

"no no, of course not" my mum says assuringly, she calms herself down, not wanting to appear angry at dad "It's just this will open up a few more opportunities for you dad, and it pays very well"

"um, okay" Ella said "So just dad is moving?"

"yes" mum replies "I can't move, I just can't" she looks to my dad "we've just decided, because it's just for a year, that we can live apart for that small amount of time"

"So you're not breaking up?" Ella looks to dad and he shakes his head.

I don't know how to feel about the whole thing. I won't see my dad for a year, and I barely see him anyway. I am not close to my dad like other kids are, we have a distant closeness, like we understand each other but aren't all hug-y and joke-y round each other, there's more of a aura of mutual respect. He's reliable and structured, he's the kind of closed off. My dad is very protective of the family and for that reason always takes an interest in what I do, as it's his way of checking up on what I do. I love my dad, but it would be awkward to say that to him, I prefer him to any other dad and I don't want him to leave.

"You don't have to go though? You can stay here, please" I look at him, and he closes his eyes and shakes his head. My dad has thinning brown hair, which I'm pretty sure he dyes; he's tall, around 6 foot 3, the kind of height where he will often hit his head on things; I see him in mainly suits, but the rare time he gets a day off he'll wear a plain t-shirt with dark jeans; his face is always tired, he rarely smiles but you can tell when he's happy as the corners of his eyes wrinkle up; he's neither fat nor thin, he's about average built with wide shoulders.

"The thing is Max, if I said I wanted to think about the position, then they would of just asked someone else so I just took the position. You'll still see me, I promise" he looks to me and smiles, it doesn't seem right. His eyes aren't creased, he isn't showing any teeth- just stretching his mouth. The smile is forced.

"um. Okay. I've got to get ready for tonight" my dad turns his head in my direction

"tonight?" he asks

"yeah, I'm going to a gig with Rochelle, I told you this"

"oh. Oh yeah. I'll drive you there" he smiles, this smile is slightly more genuine. I nod with approval. I run upstairs.

I get into my room and take off my shirt, then look at myself in the mirror. I still have bruises on my stomach and chest, I touch them and feel nothing. I don't like wearing bras, so I wear bindings to flatten my chest. My bought me a bra recently, saying it's there if I ever want it. I go into the drawers and pick it up, it's just a simple black one with a teeny tiny bow where the cups join. I take the binding of my chest and put on the bra, well try to put it on- it was a struggle to put on the straps at the back. I look in the mirror. I look okay, I feel different, like more grown up. I pull on a black and white horizontal striped t-shirt and some black skinny jeans. I tie my hair back in a pony tail and but on my red converses. I look in the mirror once more. I look kind of more grown up without binding my chest, but I'm not sure if I'm completely comfortable with it. I shrug and take a dark blue zip up hoodie, my wallet and I broke my phone throwing it at-

I gasp remembering the night I was attacked, I drop my hoodie and sit down on the floor. I don't want to go outside at night time. I tell myself to calm down, Iggy will be there, Rochelle and Tess will be there. I will be fine. I pick myself off the floor and go downstairs.

My dad takes me to town, picking Iggy up on the way. We get out at the entrance where Rochelle and Tess are already waiting for us. I wave my dad bye and he drives off.

"looking hot" Rochelle says to me, I look away

"yeah you look nice too" I say. She's wearing a light blue shirt with metal cuffs at the collar tucked into some waist high jeans, her blonde hair flows down and reaches her waist. Tess has her hair tied into two buns on top of her head and is wearing a plain red dress with a denim jacket and cowboy boots. Iggy wears his usual style of jeans with holes in and a t-shirt.

Iggy steps close to me "it's dead, stick to me" I whisper, in a volume only he can hear. There's no one around, I link arms with Iggy and we walk in to the building and we're hit with the noise of a bar, Iggy looks confused, trying to take in all the sounds.

"Where is it?" I ask Rochelle, raising my voice

"Just through some doors at the back, the gig doesn't start for a bit, we're gonna say hi to Red" Rochelle replies and she leads us to the back. There's a bar in the corner and some tables at the side, the rest of the room is bare for space for dancing, and there's a raised stage where the band is getting ready. A guy with spikey blonde hair jumped of the stage and ran up to us.

"Hey" he said

"Hi Red" Rochelle replied "So Red this is Iggy and Max" She said pointing to us.

"Hey" he said again smiling at us with a slanted smile. "right I've got to get back to setting up see you around"

After about half an hour some more people come in, Rochelle and I volunteered to stand at the door and take in tickets. We went to sit back down with Iggy and Tess who were laughing together.

"What's so funny?" Rochelle asks with a raised eyebrow

"ah, haha, doesn't matter" Tess laughs. Iggy seems pretty relaxed with her, even though he's in a new environment.

"You good?" I whisper to him, he nods and I got sit next to Rochelle.

"they'll start soon" She says, smiling "you do look really nice. Can I get you a drink"

"oh I have my own money"

"don't be silly, I brought you here" I give her a confused look, but accept. I look over at Tess and Iggy, they're laughing together, it's kind of cute.

"I got you pepsi, like you can't go wrong with pepsi" I nod and she sits back down "so Max, how's the tutor thing coming along?"

"well this guy Sam helped me, I think I'm getting it now" I reply, sipping my pepsi

"ah cool. I could of helped you, you know. Like if this guy doesn't work out-"

"oh no it's fine, don't worry about it"

"ah cool" she nods then peers to the stage. "I'm not really that good anyway, like I'm getting slowly worse and worse at school" she looks at the stage again "I don't know, I'm kinda stupid really"

"you're not stupid" I say "don't ever say that" she looks back from the stage to me

"Awh thanks Max, you're alright" The I hear a microphone crackling.

"um hi" A girl with a black bob and red lipstick says "I'm Lucille, this is Red on drums, Jean who will play about 15 different insturments tonight" everyone laughs and a guy with long blonde hair tied into a pony tail nods "And this is Kim" she says pointing to a girl with a buzz cut and dangling earrings. "We're neo-lines, hope you enjoy our set" and with that she starts playing a bass line on her red bass, and everyone joins in.

"This are all our own songs, and cd's are for sale at the bar" Lucille adds and starts singing. Rochelle pulls me up from my seat before I can finish my pepsi and we start to dance at the front with like around 50 other people. I look over to Iggy, he looks fine, he's just at the side moving to the music with Tess. I look back at Rochelle. She starts dancing with me. It's really fun, I'm not really listening to the lyrics, but it's all fast paced and Lucille has a really wonderful voice.

After a couple of songs basically everyone is up and dancing. I look to the stage and see Rochelles friend Red going crazy on the drums, then I feel a hand go around my waist, and another. I look to Rochelle and she smiles at me, it's her hands on my waist. She pulls herself real close to me and before I realise what's happening she places her lips on mine.

* * *

**Please let me know what you y'all think. bye till next time **

**-Jess x **


	10. The gig part 2

**I'm so so so sorry it took my so long to update pls forgive me- hope this makes up for it ^.^**

* * *

*Ella's POV*

I go round to Nudges, Nudge is nice, but I don't know I can't really get on with her.

"Hi Ella" she says and steps back from the door "oh why do you have so much stuff?"

"oh I was going to sleep over, is that not okay?" I ask, looking round into her house.

"oh yeah that's fine, as long as I get to watch doctor who" my head snaps

"doctor who?"

"look I know some people think it's lame but-"

"OH MY GOD! I love doctor who"

"what really? Who's your favourite doctor?"

"um, ohhh. Either fourth, sixth, or tenth"

"i like third and tenth" she says with a smile "come on lets watch it now, o-m-g, o-m-g. But first lets get snacks" I smile, who knew that doctor who could bring people together so easily.

"We could watch the fourth doctor and eat jelly babies" I say, and she laughs. **(A/N the fourth doctor loves jelly babies) **

*Iggy's POV*

"Is that your hand?" I ask Tess

"yeah" she breathes and squeezes my hand. I know we're by the walls as I can feel the music bouncing off them. I can hear about 4 other conversations around the room and all the music. I don't like it, it's confusing, but with Tess holding my hand it kind of melts away, I feel fine. Well kind of fine, I don't really know.

I try to just listen to the music and dance a little. I'm not really much of a dancer, but hey I can't tell if anyone's staring so who cares right?

*Max's POV*

I feel Rochelles lips move on mine.

"hey, hey" I say and push her back "what-" I look at her face, that is perfectly calm "what was that"

"what I took a shot. No big deal" she shrugs and looks to the stage

"what? No big deal"

"yeah no big deal, no feelings were hurt. We good?"

"um what?" I stare at her "what did you you just bring me here to make a move on me?"

"sorry, I just think you're really nice, sorry I thought you were gay" she doesn't even look my way, she just looks to the stage as if it's nothing.

"what? Um, what!?" I grab her hand and pull her out the room

"changed your mind?" she says raising an eyebrow

"what? No! Why?"

"I've said why, I think you're really nice, and I just took a shot"

"what do you then, like, like me?"

"A bit, but you know, it doesn't matter, we're cool right?"

"what?"

"we're cool, right?"

"I heard you" I swallow and take a deep breath "It's I just, um don't understand what's happening. Did you bring me here as your date? Did you only talk to me to get me on a date? Like are you gay?" she looks at me and laughs.

"You don't need to say gay as if it's a dirty word you know, but no, I'm bi. I think you're pretty cool so I invited you here, but you just kinda looked really nice, so I took a shot. I'm sorry for confusing you Max, I hope you don't resent me or anything" she looked at me with a slight smile. "I am sorry, I just don't think sometimes. As I said before I'm stupid"

"you're not stupid" I sigh, I look at her "I'm just, I was just, I'm just surprised is all, it wasn't what I was expecting" then I remember what she said before, she said she thought I was gay "Why did you think I was gay?"

"huh?

"why do you think I'm gay?"

"oh,well you have this like thing about you"

"A thing?"

"It's hard to explain, you just have a vibe"

"I have a gay vibe?"

"um well when you put it like that-"

"does everyone think I'm gay?"

"um, well no-"

"I'm not gay"

"well I know that now" she looks at the door impatiently "look I'm really sorry Max, it was a dick move. I- I um. I am sorry" I sigh

"It's fine Rochelle"

"Ro"

"What?"

"my friends call me Ro, now come on, I'll buy you another drink to show you I'm properly sorry" she leads me back into the gig room and go to the bar. "two pepsi's please" she says smiling at the bartender, he gives them over and she pays him. We go to stand at the side with Iggy and Tess. "what do you think?" she asks me

"um they're pretty good, quite loud though" I respond

"yeah, this is louder than any small gig I've been to. They really wanted to rock the house down" she laughs. I look at Rochel- I mean Ro, she nonchalantly leans against the wall. I have a feeling that we'll never talk about this again, but I just. I just can't deal with everything right now, dad leaving, having Ro kiss me, Lissa kissing Fang, not seeing Fang for so long, I just want to talk to him so bad. Doesn't matter, he's probably happy with Lissa. I grit my teeth.

"Lets dance again" I say to Ro, she nods and we both go to the middle of the room and enjoy the music.

"Okay, now we've been playing a lot of up beat tunes" Kim says and the crowd cheers "but this is a more serious song" the crowd boo's "now come on give us a chance" she says to the crowd and they stop their booing "This song is called Kate, and it's for my big sister" She smiles and picks up her guitar. Lucille comes back to the microphone and starts to sing.

_Kate, don't fall behind_

_I just want you to always be by my side_

_It's not hard, but it won't be easy_

_It's not real, but it's not fake _

_I see you lying really still_

_my heart it starting to crack and break _

Then Kim picks up a microphone and starts to sing as well

_ohhh, please don't go_

_take all I give, please you can make it I know _

_when you sit up and smile_

_honey you're you for a while_

_you'll fight through... Kate_

Kim puts down her microphone and plays her guitar again, with her head down. Lucille continues to sing.

_Hit down with cinder blocks _

_I hold you to my chest_

_I have no inspiration but you_

_I swear it, I'll bear it _

_but I just don't want this to be true _

Kim picks up the microphone again

_ohhh, please don't go_

_take all I give, please you can make it I know _

_when you sit up and smile_

_honey you're you for a while_

_you'll fight through... Kate_

Lucille stops singing, and Kim says the last line.

_Your love runs forever, I see you in verse, I'll take you to sights away from this nurse. My sight is not wearing, you have so many more beats, at nights I am turning... look down... I see your bare feet_

_you'll... fight through... Kate _

The whole room erupts in applause. Kim stands there smiling, her white teeth shining out against the contrast of her dark skin and the band quickly take jump off the stage and rush to the bar. Red comes round to us with a tall glass of a fizzy clear liquid- lemonade?

"hey guys" he says, as a few people behind him pat him on the shoulder, making him spill his drink a little. "oh my god, I'm so thirsty" he gulps down his drink "what did you think?"

"it was cool" I say "the last song was amazing"

"eyah, Kim is amazing at writing songs. She wrote it about her sister, she's been in hospital for almost a year, but Kim won't say why" We all looked down, not wanting to speak.

"I see you mastered spinning you drumsticks round" Rochelle says, quickly averting the topic.

"um, yeah. Well kind of" he looks up. "Been practising quite a lot, soon I'll be an expert" he then looks to me "hey you're friends with Nick, right? I sit next to him in maths and he ain't been there like all week. Is he alright?"

"He's not too well" I say, not giving out any specifics

"ah, sorry to hear, hope he's well soon. He don't speak much does he?"

"nah"

"you don't either" he says raising his eyebrows

"oh you shut up Red, if you ask me, you talk too much" Ro says

"ah yes, are you two having a nice time?" he says and he wiggles his eyebrows at Ro, which I don't think I was supposed to see. Ro rolls her eyes.

"Yes. Me and my _straight _friend Max are having a lovely time" she says to Red, who then turns a shade of red "Now stop being a dick for gods sake" Red looks away and mumbles something

"do you want to come with us, there's a party at Jeans house" Red asks, I look at the time and see it's already 10pm

"I think I should probably go home" I say

"awh come on Max, it will be great, come on it's a Friday night, text your folks, you can sleep over at mine" Ro said smiling at me

"um I don't know, Iggy might-"

"Iggy can come too" Ro said smiling "Come on it's going to be great" I pick up my phone and text my dad.

"about twenty people sitting on the floor, leaning against walls and sat at some sofas at the side, there's a empty sofa at two o'clock" I whipser into Iggy's ear as we go to Jeans house for the party. The room is packed, so Iggy stays close to me with Tess following.

"Cool, I'll just sit down for now" he says stretching his hand out so I can direct him to a seat. "I have to check my messages anyway. He takes out his iphone and it tells him he has a missed message from Fang. What why's Fang only talking to Iggy? Iggy presses a button and lifts it to his ear, he laughs and puts the phone back into his pocket.

"What did he say?" I ask, eager to know what's going on with Fang

"oh doesn't matter" Iggy replies

"what? Why doesn't it matter"

"it really just doesn't matter, it's nothing" Fang hasn't sent me a single text. I stand up.

"excuse me" I say and walk into the kitchen

"Max, Max" Ro yells, pulling me over to the corner "so this is Jean, and Lucille. They've been dating how cute is that they're like perfect for each other" I tilt my head to the side, Rochelle seems a bit too excited. My eye quickly detects a few drinks on the side cabinet.

"Wait you didn't say this was a drinking party" I say looking at Rochelle.

"oh chill, you don't have to drink anything" Ro replies "It's just these guys are 16 and their parents buy drinks for them. Pretty cool huh?" Lucille raises an eyebrow at Jean who shakes his head and looks back to Rochelle, he leans forward to me

"take care of her, hey?" he whispers, I nod.

"so how long have you been dating?" I ask Jean,

"a few months" he smiles at Lucille who gives him a kiss on the cheek. I let a smile go, they are pretty cute.

"anyway, we'll get out of your hair" I say and pull Ro away seeing they want to be left alone.

I take her to a seat in the living room, opposite from Iggy and Tess, who are looking pretty comfortable together. I close my eyes and see a flash of red hair, it covers over Fang in his hospital bed, then a figure from beneath the hair appears and holds onto Fang. I open my eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Ro asks, I look to her and touch my cheeks feeling that they're wet.

"um, I'm quite sensitive to dust... can I have something to drink?" I ask, Ro nods and darts off into the kitchen. I lay back on the sofa and look at the pattern on the ceiling. Somebody switches on some music and everybody gets off the over sofas and the floor and starts to dance, the room is packed and I can see Iggy from the other side of the room to check he's okay. Whatever, he's fine in normal situations, so he should be fine in noisy situations when he's just sitting down and with Tess.

"Hello" Ro says and sits down, handing me a drink. I take a sip and feel my face recoil as I feel a burning sensation down the back of my throat.

"What is this?" I ask and she laughs

"I dunno, a bit of this a bit of that. I like it" she smiles at me and puts her drink down. I look at mine and have another sip, it tastes a bit better this time. I drink until I see that it's almost empty. "oh I love this song lets dance" Ro says and pulls me up to dance, I feel a rush of air going past my head as I'm pulled up. My arms feel floppy and my head is heavy. I let go of the hand Ro is holding.

"I'm just going to make a phone call" I say and dart off into the other room. I look through my contacts, ah Fang. I press his name and the phone starts to dial.

"Hello" I hear

"Hi Fang-"

"I'm not here, ring later" then there's a beep, ah I can leave a message

"uh Fang, Do you hate me? I don't hate you, I love you. Fang? I love you. Bye" I put down the phone, that will solve things. I lean against the wall, ah this is cool. Anyway what was I doing here?

*3rd person*

Max stays on the floor clutching her mobile.

"Hey Max, you okay?" Rochelle slurs "what are you doing on the floor, who did you ring?" Max looks at the phone, unable to recall the conversation she just had.

"what? Um I think I was just checking my messages" Max replies and walks back into the sitting room where everyone's dancing. Rochelle mixes another two drinks, she opens a can of cider and fills each of the glasses a quarter full, adds some cranberry juice, a little bit of peach schnapps and then fills the rest of the glass with vodka. She passes a glass to Max who shakes her head at the glass.

"No thanks Ro, I just want-" she looks away "on second thoughts, I could have a sip" she smiles as Rochelle passes her the drink. Max winces as the burning sensation in her throat meets her, this drink is stronger than the last one. "I hope you didn't mix drinks" Max says to Rochelle "My mum says that's what makes you feel ill" she finishes off her drink in a gulp and instantly regrets it as she feels her throat burn.

"um a little" Rochelle says "but you'll be fine. Lets dance"

Not used to having alcohol in her blood Max clumsily stood and let herself be guided to the middle of the room to dance. Max took Rochelles hands and they jumped up and down to the beat of the music, the packed room leaves very little breathing space. Max carefully places her hands upon Rochelles shoulders who looks at Max.

"What are you-" Rochelle starts, but is unable to complete her sentence.

*Max's POV*

"Hey Max, you okay?" I look up and see Ro looking down at me "What are you doing on the floor, who did you ring?" I look at the phone in my hand. I don't think I rang anyone, did I? No I didn't I was just checking my texts, yeah that's it.

"what? Um I think I was just checking my messages" I reply and stand up, I go sit down on the sofa and see Ro dart into the kitchen, she comes back with two drinks. I don't- I don't want more drinks. I want- I want. I just want to talk to-

"No thanks Ro, I just want-" I look at the dance floor. I just want to see Fang, my memory flickers to when Ro found me on the floor, did I ring him. I don't know, maybe I should stop thinking about it. "on second thoughts, I could have a sip" I say and smile to Ro, she gives me a small smile as she passes me the drink. Blergh this drink is even worse than the last one, I feel myself wince. I feel number. "I hope you didn't mix drinks" I say looking to Rochelle "My mum says that's what makes you feel ill" I remember my mum telling me that when she was really ill one morning. I looked at the dark drink in front of me and finish it off. Uh I wish I didn't do that my throat feels like it's on fire. I looked to Rochelle and she said something, then before I knew it shoe pulled me up and we were dancing together. My mind wobbles, thinking of everything. I don't have anyone, Fang has Lissa, well I have Iggy- well I don't, he's with Tess. What if they date them, then who will I have- no one, no friends. I look into the eyes of the person opposite me. I have Rochelle.

I feel clumsy, but move in time with the music, I hold onto Ro's hand and we jump together. She's smiling at me and I feel myself smile back. I feel myself get close to her and don't feel so alone, I just need someone. I place my hands on her shoulders, she cocks her head to one side

"What are you-" Rochelle starts, as I lean forward and kiss her. This kiss feels better, like less clumsy, more expected, nice. I move my lips, but Rochelle doesn't kiss me back. I pull back.

"Max, you're not gay" she said looking my square in the eyes

"but-" I start "You like me, I want to kiss you so-"

"I'm not some type of experiment, or some type of toy. You can't just kiss me for fun, when a girl kisses me it's real for me"

"but-"

"you're not gay, or bi so this means nothing to you, but I am bi so it means something to me. You can't just do this" I look at Ro's face, it's all blurry, I feel the room start to spin and Ro's face suddenly looks concerned. Her mouth moves, but no words come out. I put my hand onto my eye and feel it getting hit with tear. I feel Ro drag me outside the house and props me up.

All I can hear is ringing in my ears as I see Ro's mouth move.

"MAX" my eyes dart to Ro. Oh thank god I can hear her.

"what"

"Max, you're crying" I look at her and become aware of the tears running down my face. "Why are you crying?" and in that single second it hits me

"I want to see Fang, but I can't" I see confusion on her face "Fang is my nickname for Nick. I just-" I pause when I release what the end of that sentence is and it hits me like a tonne of bricks.

"It's okay. It's okay" Ro says and hugs me "You're not in a good state, we'll go home, I'll take care of you yes? Jeff and Tess are coming back to mine too, we'll all be there for you" I nod and stay clutched to her.

*Iggy's POV*

"You're really cute" Tess says to me giggling, I feel her head rest on my shoulder and take a deep breath in and put my arm around her. Phew. I feel her hair prickling my neck, it smells nice.

"You're cuter" I say and I feel her sit up

"but you can't see me" she says, I chuckle

"doesn't make it not true" I smile "um Tess?"

"Yes?" I feel a whoosh of air as I feel her turn towards me, and her hair flick over the arm that's around her

"would it be alright if- if I kissed you?" I heard a small gasp escape her lips

"Yes" she replied and felt her slowly move closer to me.

"oh thank go you're here" I heard Rochelle say and felt her sit down next to me, she sounded different- she sounded drunk. "We need to go, Max is in a right state, we can't stay here"

"Igs!" I heard Max say, then felt a head lean on my legs, she must be sitting on the floor. I feel her hug my leg "why doesn't Fang want to talk to me? Does he not like me anymore?"

"oh course he likes you, you're best friends" I hear he sigh

"Jeff-"

"Call me Iggy"

"-um okay Iggy, we need to take her home before she starts crying again"

"What, why was she crying?" I take my arm from around Tess and I slip myself onto the floor next to Max "You okay?" I hear her shake her head.

"Not really" I lean forward and hug her "It's going to be okay" I feel her shake. "come on lets go back" I hear Rochelle pick Max up and then feel a kiss on my cheek.

"I owed you a kiss" Tess said and pulled me up, then lead me out the room.

*Fangs POV*

I switch the lights off, I don't feel like any TV, but on the bright side I can go home tomorrow morning. I lay down and close my eyes, then hear a faint buzzing. I sit up and look at my bed side table and see my phone ringing. Mum got me a new phone- well it's from 2008, but it's my new phone. I don't feel like talking so I let it ring out.

"wake up" My eyes open and I see my nurse

"Hey, come on Nick your mum will be here any sec, get changed and stuff" he walks out. Huh, pretty brief encounter, must be in a rush to get to work, or just wants to get out my room. I wouldn't blame him it's not that nice in here.

I pull the curtains around my bed for some privacy. I take off my blue pyjamas and put on a pair of black jeans. I look to see which shirts I have in my bag and pick up a deep green one, then put my big dark blue denim jacket on top. I walk through the curtains and out the door to the bathroom. I look in the mirror. My hair is all greasy and gross, eurgh, my skins kind of looks sickly. I hate hospitals so much. I take a deep breath in a smell the pang of disinfectant. I quickly get out of there and back to my room.

"FANG" I hear Nudge shout as I come back to my room, Nudge and Dad- I mean Ian are there waiting for me.

"Hey Nick" Ian says smiling, he's holding my bag "oh dear you're not looking so good, are you sure it's okay for you to come home" I nod

"please get me out of here" I say, Ian gives a small smile and we walk out. We stop at the nurses desk and my nurse hands me a piece of paper.

"This is just for pain medication, don't do any strenuous exercise for about two weeks"

"does skateboarding count?" I ask

"I'll say no skateboarding just to be careful. Take care"

"You too" I say and we walk to the prescription counter and hand in the sheet of paper. We take a big orange bottle and then go to the car. Nudge chats away the whole ride home about this drawing she's done.

"Here it is" Nudge shouts as she pulls me into the sitting room to her canvas "look Ella and I did it together"

"Ella?" I ask, I thought those guys hated each other, at best they could take a short conversation together

"yeah, she slept over we watched doctor who all night, it was so cool we had lots of snacks and painted this picture of the fourth doctor. See look here he is, and then Sarah Jane has tied him up in his scarf and Ella drew his jelly babies all over the floor and oh my god it was so much fun" Nudge beams to me and I smile "I also drew this picture of you it's not finished, but it's alright. I mean I've done your hair and head, but no face so it looks a bit creepy at the moment" she hands me a piece of paper, and oh my god, it looks really good. The hair looks just like mine and I recognise my pointy chin.

"This is really good" I say holding the picture up "like seriously good" I look back to Nudge who is smiling

"Thank you, and I know. I know that kind of sounds like I'm really full of myself, but I just know it's good and I love it, I can be proud of my work. And thank you again. Hey what if I draw this of you and you draw one of me and then we trade?"

"Deal" I say and she smiles at me "But first I'm going to sleep for about 10 hours" Then I drag myself up stairs to go sleep. I lay down on the bed and relax. It's so comfy, I'm not connected to any tubes, I'm not going to start hyperventilating or anything. I close my eyes and drift to sleep.

*Max's POV* 

My head feels so heavy, but Ro gave me some medicine before I went to sleep to stop me from barfing. Bleh I feel so gross. It was fun last night, I danced with Ro and, um I kissed her. Oh shit, and she didn't like it. I just remember being really lonely and she was there. Oh god.

What other shitty stuff did I do, I remember being angry at Fang, I rang him. I did ring him, but what did I say?

"MAX!" I sit up and turn to Ro "Do you want bacon or not?" I nod and she hands me a plate of two slices of toast and some rashers of bacon.

"Thank you" I say and her she nods her head. Tess passes me some orange juice and I pour myself a glass.

"How are you this morning?" Iggy asks as he comes back from the bathroom, don't ask me how he managed to find his way there and back, without walking into things- because I don't know.

"You know, kind of dead" I'm never drinking AGAIN. Iggy chuckles, then sits down next to Tess and smiles at me. I smile, but then look away. He's getting pretty close to Tess, it makes me feel weird. Not a good weird.

"Would it be cheeky if I asked for a lift home" Iggy asks me, hopefully.

"Sorry man, I'm getting the bus"

"cool if I tag along?"

"sure go crazy"

"oh I'm getting the bus too" Tess chimes in "bus buddies" she smiles, and Iggy smiles back at her, they look to me. I'm not in a smiling mood so I just get down to something I'm always in the mood for: food.

"Hi Ella" I say as I walk through the door, she's sitting on the stair case playing on her ipad "How was it with Nudge?"

"great" she replies, I raise my eye at her "what, we watched doctor who, it was great" ah, so they have something in common at last. "oh!" she puts down her ipad "Nudge said Fang was coming home today, I had to go cause her and her dad had to go pick him up"

"What? Really?"

"yeah, but if I were you I'd have a shower first" I roll my eyes "No seriously Max. Have a shower" I furrow my eyebrows, but I have to admit after last night I probably don't look that hot.

*Fang's POV*

I open my eyes to my bedroom, I don't know how long I had a nap for. I take my phone put to check the time and a notification pops up for a missed call, I dial the number of my mail box to hear who it's from.

"_Message received today. at. twelve. O. nine. am" _The automated voice says, who would ring me at midnight, I stay online to find out. I hear a voice which is recognisably Max's, but it sounds different.

" uh Fang, Do you hate me? I don't hate you, I love you. Fang? I love you. Bye" she says. I drop the phone on the bed. Max loves me? No, no it can't be true.

I hear a knock on my door. "hey, dude can I come in?" I hear Max's voice say, I stay still. "I'm coming in so be ready" her message repeats itself in my head as the door knob turns. What should I say to her?

* * *

**bebop**

**hope you enjoyed it, pls let me know what you thought- love you guys **

**-Jess x**


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